Chapter 9

1. Chapter 9 Language I: Introduction to Language and Language Comprehension

2. The Nature of Language • syntax • grammar • semantics • pragmatics

3. The Nature of Language • A Brief History of Psycholinguistics • Chomsky's Approach • Language abilities can be explained in terms of a complex system of rules and principles represented in the minds of language users. • Humans have an innate understanding of the abstract principles of language. • Language learning involves the more superficial characteristics of a particular language.

4. The Nature of Language • A Brief History of Psycholinguistics • Chomsky's Approach (continued) • Language is modular (language is special, not processed the same as other cognitive tasks). • surface structure vs. deep structure of sentences • transformational rules • ambiguous sentences

5. The Nature of Language • Factors Affecting Comprehension • Negatives • Clark & Chase (1972) • Negative statements require more processing time than affirmative statements. • Affirmative statements produce fewer errors. • Multiple negatives decrease performance.

6. The Nature of Language • Factors Affecting Comprehension • The Passive Voice • Ferreira and her coauthors (2002) • sentence plausibility • The active form of a sentence is easier to understand than the passive form.

7. The Nature of Language • Factors Affecting Comprehension • Complex Syntax • difficult to understand • can result in memory overload • nested structure • working memory

8. The Nature of Language • Factors Affecting Comprehension • Ambiguity • Ambiguous Words • People pause longer when they are processing an ambiguous word. • When people encounter a potential ambiguity, the activation builds up for all the well-known meanings of the ambiguous item.

9. The Nature of Language • Factors Affecting Comprehension • Ambiguity • Ambiguous Words • People are likely to choose one particular meaning: • if that meaning is more common than the alternate meaning • if the rest of the sentence is consistent with that meaning

10. The Nature of Language • The "Good-Enough" Approach to Language Comprehension • People typically manage to read quite rapidly. • The good-enough approach—Ferreira and colleagues • People frequently process only part of a sentence. • People usually do not work hard to create the most accurate, detailed interpretation of every sentence they read or hear.

11. The Nature of Language • The "Good-Enough" Approach to Language Comprehension • The good-enough approach—Ferreira and colleagues • People read quickly, and they try to grasp the general meaning of a sentence. • Knowledge of language typically leads to an accurate interpretation. • This strategy can sometimes lead to errors in language comprehension.

12. The Nature of Language • In Depth: Neurolinguistics • Individuals with Aphasia • aphasia • Figure 9.1: Broca's Area & Wernicke's Area • Broca's area/Broca's aphasia: expressive-language deficit • Wernicke's area/Wernicke's aphasia: receptive-language deficit

14. The Nature of Language • In Depth: Neurolinguistics • Individuals with Aphasia • People with Broca's aphasia may also have some trouble with language comprehension. • Many people with Wernicke's aphasia have problems with language production as well as language comprehension.

15. The Nature of Language • In Depth: Neurolinguistics • Hemispheric Specialization • lateralization • variations related to handedness

16. The Nature of Language • In Depth: Neurolinguistics • Hemispheric Specialization • Role in language • left hemisphere • speech perception/sound interpretation • meaning • imagery • right hemisphere • emotional tone • humor • more abstract language tasks

17. The Nature of Language • In Depth: Neurolinguistics • Neuroimaging Research in Adults Without Aphasia • Using the fMRI method to study language in the left hemisphere. • Kanwisher and colleagues • attempts to identify specific areas responsible for language comprehension tasks • individual differences

18. The Nature of Language • In Depth: Neurolinguistics • Neuroimaging Research in Adults Without Aphasia • Using the fMRI method to study language in the left hemisphere. • language-localizer task • compensates for individual differences • creates linguistic map for each person using complex language tasks • later, test each person on language and non-language tasks

19. The Nature of Language • In Depth: Neurolinguistics • Neuroimaging Research in Adults Without Aphasia • Using the fMRI method to study language in the left hemisphere. • language-localizer task (continued) • Specific regions of left frontal lobe responded only to language tasks, but not to other kinds of cognitive tasks. • Other research has located portions of the left hemisphere that process specific linguistic information (e.g., sentences vs. non-words).

20. The Nature of Language • In Depth: Neurolinguistics • Neuroimaging Research in Adults Without Aphasia • Using the fMRI method to study language in the right hemisphere. • Gernsbacher and Robertson (2005):"A"/"The" study • virtually identical patterns of activation in left hemisphere • right hemisphere responded differently to connected language ("The" sentences) than to disconnected language ("A" sentences)

21. The Nature of Language • In Depth: Neurolinguistics How the Mirror System Can Facilitate Communication • mirror system—a network of neurons in the brain’s motor cortex that are activated when you watch someone perform an action

22. The Nature of Language • In Depth: Neurolinguistics How the Mirror System Can Facilitate Communication • Rizzolatti and colleagues • measure responses of single neurons • monkeys watching a researcher break open a peanut • Monkeys' responses while watching were similar to when the monkeys themselves broke open a peanut.

23. The Nature of Language • In Depth: Neurolinguistics How the Mirror System Can Facilitate Communication • Calvo-Merino and colleagues (2005) • fMRI data for experts in classical ballet or martial arts • videos of classical ballet vs. videos of martial arts

24. The Nature of Language • In Depth: Neurolinguistics How the Mirror System Can Facilitate Communication • Calvo-Merino and colleagues (2005) • fMRIs for experts in classical ballet showed significantly greater activation in the motor-cortex areas relevant to ballet movements, and relatively little activation in the areas relevant to martial arts.

25. The Nature of Language • In Depth: Neurolinguistics How the Mirror System Can Facilitate Communication • Calvo-Merino and colleagues (2005) • Individuals who were experts in martial arts showed the reverse activation pattern. • In other words, experts can grasp meaning by watching another person, when they have fully developed the appropriate motor ‘‘vocabulary.’’

26. Basic Reading Processes • Reading Words: Theoretical Approaches • How do we look at a pattern of letters and actually recognize that word? • dual-route approach to reading—skilled readers employ both a direct-access route (recognize word directly through vision) and an indirect-access route (recognize word by first sounding out the word)

27. Basic Reading Processes • Reading Words: Theoretical Approaches • The Direct-Access Route • Bradshaw and Nettleton (1974) • pairs of words with similar spelling, but different sounds • first word read silently, second word pronounced out loud

28. Basic Reading Processes • Reading Words: Theoretical Approaches • The Direct-Access Route • Bradshaw and Nettleton (1974) (continued) • no interference indicated by no hesitation in pronouncing second word • Results suggest that people do not silently pronounce each word during normal reading.

29. Basic Reading Processes • Reading Words: Theoretical Approaches • The Indirect-Access Route • People often translate visual stimuli into sound during reading. • Sound coding may enhance working memory.

30. Basic Reading Processes • Reading Words: Theoretical Approaches • The Indirect-Access Route • Luo and coauthors (1998) • pairs of words judged as related or unrelated in meaning • Students made errors on pairs where the second word sounds like a word that is semantically related to the first word (e.g., LION-BARE).

31. Basic Reading Processes • Reading Words: Theoretical Approaches • The Indirect-Access Route • Luo and coauthors (1998) (continued) • suggests they were silently pronouncing the word pairs when they made the judgments • few errors on pairs where the second word looked like a related word (e.g., LION-BEAN)

32. Basic Reading Processes • Reading Words: Theoretical Approaches • The Indirect-Access Route • Word sounds may be especially important when children begin to read. Children with high phonological awareness have superior reading skills.

33. Basic Reading Processes • Reading Words: Theoretical Approaches • Dual-Route Approach • flexible • argues that the characteristics of the reading material determine whether access is indirect or direct • argues that characteristics of the reader also determine whether access is indirect or direct (e.g., beginning vs. advanced readers; poor vs. good readers) • consistent with brain-imaging research

34. Basic Reading Processes • Implications for Teaching Reading to Children • Whole-word approach (direct access) • argues readers can directly connect the written word—as an entire unit—with the meaning that this word represents • argues that children should not learn to emphasize the way a word sounds • emphasizes context within a sentences

35. Basic Reading Processes • Implications for Teaching Reading to Children • Whole-word approach (direct access) • problem—Even skilled adult readers achieve only about 25% accuracy when they look at an incomplete sentence and guess which word is missing.

36. Basic Reading Processes • Implications for Teaching Reading to Children • Phonics approach (indirect access) • Readers recognize words by trying to pronounce the individual letters in the word. • "sound it out" • argues that speech sound is a necessary intermediate step in reading

37. Basic Reading Processes • Implications for Teaching Reading to Children • Most educators and researchers support some sort of compromise. • Whole-language approach • Reading instruction should emphasize meaning. • Reading instruction should be enjoyable, to increase children's enthusiasm about learning to read.