Comprehension: Written Spoken Language Chapter 10

1. Comprehension: Written & Spoken LanguageChapter 10

2. Comprehension: Written & Spoken Language How do we comprehend? What do we do when we read, understand, and remember connected sentences? More than just simple sentence analysis

3. Heads Up! Overview Conceptual & Rule Knowledge Comprehension Research Structure Building Situational Models Reference, Inference & Memory Spoken Language & Conversation

4. Overview We focus on the next levels of language analysis: Conceptual & Beliefs Ambiguous sentence: Mary and John saw the mountains while they were flying to California

5. Overview Your semantic, conceptual knowledge tells you that mountains don�t fly Conceptual level of analysis compares possible interpretations with your semantic knowledge But this is only � the picture� Beliefs are also important for comprehension

6. Overview No, I am not saying that Mary and John were flying, I am telling you the mountains were flying Your belief in your own knowledge, feeling that I am trying to trick you, or that I am crazy, are important for your comprehension Advertisements or political campaigns A purely linguistic analysis misses this critical aspect of language comprehension

7. Traditional Comprehension Research Linguistic Intuitions: Judgements about the acceptability of sentences Sachs (1967): Interrupted subjects while reading a passages of text and tested recognition of a target sentence Recognition was accurate immediately Beyond that, subjects were only accurate at rejecting choices that changed the meaning of the sentence � could not discriminate between true sentence and paraphrased sentences Good content accuracy poor technical accuracy

8. Limitations of Traditional Research How did subjects mange to retain meaning so well despite forgetting the exact wording of the target? How quickly did verbatim memory begin to decline? Research raised more questions than it answered

9. Limitations of Traditional Research Cognitive psychologists needed more precise methods of investigating comprehension Measures that allow us to study comprehension as it happens More than people's linguistic intuitions could tell us

10. On-Line Comprehension Tasks (Measure comprehension as it happens) Written Language: A sentence appears on-screen, followed by a word Was the word in the sentence? (RT) Ken liked the boxer, so he went to the pet store to buy it If only �fighter� is activated RT would be faster than �dog� If both �dog� and �fighter� are activated then both RTs faster than �plate� (neutral word)

11. On-Line Comprehension Tasks Spoken Language: Interruption technique: Interruption during the presentation of a sentence and ask for memory performance on what was just heard (auditory equivalent to written language) Monitoring: Listen to a sentence and when the target (/b/) is identified press a button Slower when comprehension is harder� Ken liked the boxer, so he went to the pet store to buy it

12. Comprehension and Mental Structure Building (Gernsbacher,1990) Language comprehension is a process of building mental structures (combines spreading activation and comprehension) Laying a foundation Mapping information onto the structure Shifting to a new structure

13. Comprehension and Mental Structure Building (Gernsbacher,1990) Laying a foundation: As we read sentences we begin to build a mental structure that stores the meaning of the sentence in memory (the overall relation being expressed) Dave was studying hard for his psychology midterm About �Dave and his exam�

14. Comprehension and Mental Structure Building (Gernsbacher,1990) Mapping information onto the structure: As more elements appear in the sentence they are added to the structure via mapping Additional concepts are added to the �Dave� structure ? specifying it was a �midterm�

15. Comprehension and Mental Structure Building (Gernsbacher,1990) Shifting to a new structure: At some point a different idea is encountered and that signals a change in focus Because the professor had a reputation for giving difficult exams, student�s knew that they had to be well prepared Signals and change in focus ? close �Dave� structure and begin a new one

16. Evidence for Structure Building Tina gathered kindling as Lisa set up the tent Advantage of First Mention: Ideas mentioned in the beginning of the episode retain a special significance 50 ms faster RT to Tina

17. Evidence for Structure Building Tina gathered kindling as Lisa set up the tent Advantage of Clause Recency: The most recently presented characters show an advantage 50ms faster RT for Lisa ? dissipates after 150 ms First idea is the focus and later clauses are represented in substructures Sensitive to structure when we read and speak

18. Comprehension: Definite vs. Indefinite Articles Definite article: �The� Indefinite articles: �A,� �an,� �some�

19. Comprehension: Definite vs. Indefinite Articles Gernsbacher (1977) found that sentences with definite articles are understood and remembered better �The� is a cue for discourse coherence (integration of the meanings of several related sentences) enabling us to perform the mapping more efficiently and accurately

20. Definite vs. Indefinite Articles (Robertson et. al., 2000)  fMRI study Sentences with definite articles show greater RH activation RH is important for coherence and inference processes in comprehension

21. Enhancement & Suppression (connecting the model to spreading activation) Dave was studying hard for his psychology midterm Because the professor had a reputation for giving difficult exams, student�s knew that they had to be well prepared Ideas of the first sentence map on to the second sentence ? Activation of related memory nodes Midterm ? exams Psychology ? professor

22. Enhancement & Suppression Enhancement: Memory nodes are enhanced in their level of activation �Professor� combines with activation from �midterm� and �psychology� because of their semantic relatedness (spreading activation) Suppression: Activated nodes that become unrelated to the focus decrease in activation Activation level for �Dave� decreases because it is no longer the main focus

23. Situation Models & Comprehension What happens to these connected stories? How are such passages stored for later use? We store a situation model of the passage A representation of the real world situation described in the text Includes: Temporal and spatial information, information about the objects, locations and people mentioned in the stories, and the inferences we draw while comprehending the stories

24. Situation Models & Comprehension Tina gathered kindling as Lisa set up the tent Situation Model: Tina was searching through the woods for kindling and Lisa was in clearing of some kind hammering tent pegs When you retrieve information about the passage of text, your retrieval is influenced by the situations model�s structure (person-based or location-based)

25. Heads Up! Overview Conceptual & Rule Knowledge Comprehension Research Structure Building Situational Models Reference, Inference & Memory Spoken Language & Conversation

26. Reference & Inference Two important language devices: Reference & Inference Dave was studying hard for his psychology midterm Because the professor had a reputation for giving difficult exams, student�s knew that they had to be well prepared

27. Reference & Inference How do we comprehend a sentence that requires reference to another sentence to be understood? What kinds of inferences are drawn during comprehension? How do we tailor our conversations to the inferences that the listener is likely to draw?

28. Reference Involves finding connections between elements in a sentence or text passage Most commonly involves pronouns or synonyms that refer to the antecedent Dave studied hard for his psychology exam Antecedent: �Dave� Anaphoric Reference: �his� Reference: Linguistic process of alluding to a concept by using another name

29. Implication & Inference Implication: An intended, but not explicitly mentioned, reference in a sentence (in the mind of the speaker) Inference: The process by which the reader or listener draws connections between concepts, determines the referents of the words, and derives conclusions The final exam covers a lot of material (I am implying something about the difficulty of the exam, but I leave it to the students to draw the inference)

30. Reference & Inference Avoid redundancy ? we rely on listeners to know the meaning of our words, to know about syntactic devices, and to share our general conceptual knowledge Mike went to the pool to swim some laps. After his workout, he went to his psychology class. The professor asked him to summarize the chapter that he�s assigned the class to read. Mike went to the pool to swim some laps. After Mike swam some laps, Mike went to Mike�s psychology class. The professor of Mike�s psychology class asked Mike to summarize the chapter that Mike�s psychology professor had assigned Mike�s psychology class to read.

31. Reference & Implication (Clark, 1977)