WORD RECOGNTION (Sereno, 1/05) I. Introduction to psycholinguistics II. Basic units of language III. Word recognition IV. Word frequency & lexical ambiguity
Apr 01, 2015
WORD RECOGNTION (Sereno, 1/05)
I. Introduction to psycholinguistics
II. Basic units of language
III. Word recognition
IV. Word frequency & lexical ambiguity
I. Introduction to Psycholinguistics
A. Properties of language
B. What does it mean to study language?
C. Competence / Performance examples of language use
I. Introduction to Psycholinguistics A. Properties of language
Human Language = flexible, symbol-based and rule-based mode of communication that permits conveyance of any kind of information. Its properties include:
Creative – a limitless # of thoughts can be expressedin a limitless # of ways.
Structured – sounds are combined into words, and wordsinto sentences according to rules (i.e., grammar).
] hierarchical
I. Introduction to Psycholinguistics A. Properties of language
Meaningful – ideas are conveyed by individual wordsand how they are organised into sentences.
Referential – it refers to and describes things and eventsin the world.
Interpersonal / Communicative – it has a social function.
] Ex: The cat ate the dog.The dog ate the cat.
I. Introduction to Psycholinguistics B. What does it mean to study language?
Linguistics = structure of languagephonetics, syntax, semantics, cross-language
comparisons, language universals
Psycholinguistics = processing of languageunderstanding the mechanisms of language behaviore.g., normal adult comprehension and production of language; neurolinguistics; language acquisition; language in non-humans
I. Introduction to Psycholinguistics B. What does it mean to study language?
Socio-linguistics = social aspects of languageLinguistic factors, such as ...
voice pitch, pronunciation (dialect),word choice, intonation
... influence our judgements about the speaker’s:age, gender, geographical identity,
socio-economic class, intelligence, personality, mood
Examples: R’s in New York (Labov, 1966) Disney
I. Introduction to Psycholinguistics C. Competence / Performance
Competence = what one knowsImplicit knowledge - knowing what’s “right”Explicit knowledge - explain in terms of formal rules
Performance = what one does; how knowledge is used- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -Examples of language use:
(1) wordness(2) grammaticality judgements(3) tag questions
Wordness: For each row of 3 possible new words, which one will probably never make it : (
blick splunge rlight
sbarm wumple turl
mancer nserht crelurious
inther iwhucr neen
shace fring ngout
John is difficult to love.
It is difficult to love John.
John is anxious to go.
It is anxious to go John.
What he did was climb a tree.
What he thought was want a sports car.
What are you drinking and go home?
Mary was near the stream, was it?
Grammaticality Judgements
Tag Question = element attached at end of utterance;not a true question nor a full declarative statement; a way of asking for confirmation
That was a horrible movie, wasn’t it?
She’s been swimming, ______________?Jeremy wants to go dancing, ______________?You haven’t had any sleep, ______________?The man who was smoking died, ______________?Those friends of Maria’s that we don’t
particularly like didn’t know, ______________?
Tag Question formation rules...But first, background information about
the (dreaded) VERB AUXILIARY Declarative Verb Aux.Jo has eaten well. HAVEJo was bad again. BEJo ran yesterday. DO
GRAMMATICAL TRANSFORMATION
Question Negation Verb Aux. Has Jo eaten well? Jo hasn’t eaten well. HAVE Was Jo bad again? Jo wasn’t bad again. BE Did Jo run yesterday? Jo didn’t run yesterday. DO
Tag question formation rules:1. Copy the auxiliary of the main verb to the
right of the sentence.
2. Make it negative if the original is positive or positive if the original is negative.
3. Add the pronoun that corresponds to thesubject in person, number, and gender.
Bob and Betty were laughing loudly, _____________?That famous surgeon quit, _____________?She’s not leaving already, _____________?
II. Basic Units of Language
A. ~5,000 languagesphonemes morphemes sentences conversations (sounds) & words
B. Phonemes = elementary sounds of speech• phonemes are not letters...
to, too, two, through, threw, shoe, clue, view
• vowel & consonant phonemes
• 11-144 phonemes in any given languageEnglish has ~ 40; Hawaiian has ~16
• combining phonemes is rule-governed
II. Basic Units of Language
C. Morphemes = smallest meaningful unit of lang.
• can be a word, word stem, or affix (prefix, suffix)word: help, loveword stem: spir, ceive, duceprefix/suffix: re-, dis-, un- / -less, -ful, -er
• derivational & inflectional morphemesderivational – change the grammatical class
V + -able = Adj (adorable, believable)V + -er = N (singer, runner)
inflectional – grammatical markersV + -ed = past tense (walked)N + -s = plural (cows)
“free” {
“bound”{
II. Basic Units of Language
C. Words• Content vs. function (open- vs. closed-class) words
Content words = carry the main meaningnouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs
Function words = grammatical wordsarticles (a, the, this), conjunctions (and,but), prepositions (in, above)
Psychological reality of the content-functionword distinction in aphasia selective impairment of content (Wernicke’s) orfunction words (Broca’s aphasia)
• Cattell (1886) & Stroop (1935)
Word superiority effect (Cattell, 1886)
– Reicher (1969); Wheeler (1970)
– tachistoscopic presentation
– more accurate identification of the letter when stimulus is a word
– pseudoword superiorty effect
---dk word
dk d
REDBLUE
BLACK
GREEN
RED
RED
GREENBLACK
BLUE
BLUE
RED
BLACK
BLUE
BLACK
BLUE
GREEN
BLUEGREEN
RED
GREEN
NAME THE COLOUR OF THE INK
II. Basic Units of Language
C. Words• Ambiguity
1 word form, but 2 (or more) word meaningsEx: bank (N-N, “money” vs. “river”) watch (N-V, “clock” vs. “look”) bass (N-N, “guitar” vs. “fish”)
2 word forms, but 1 pronunciationEx: sail/sale, right/write
Generally unaware of ambiguity...even though it is quite pervasiveeven though it affects behaviour (RT, etc)
homographs
homophones
II. Basic Units of Language
D. Sentences• Syntax = the rule-governed system for groupingwords together into phrases and sentences
• Sentences introduce a concept that they are about,the subject (or noun phrase), and then proposesomething about that concept, the predicate(or verb phrase).Ex: “The boy hit the ball.”
doer act done-to (thematic roles)
subject predicate
II. Basic Units of Language
D. Sentences• Same deep structure, different surface structure
“The boy hit the ball.” (active)“The ball was hit by the ball.” (passive)
• Same surface structure, different deep structure [The French bottle]NP [smells.]VP
[The French]NP [bottle smells.]VP
THEY are boring. VISITING THEM is boring.
cf. ambig. figures in perception: 1 form, 2 interpretations
“The French bottle smells.”
“Visiting relatives can be boring.”
Necker cube
New obesity study looks for larger test groupReagan wins on budget, but more lies aheadMan struck by lightening faces battery chargeEnraged Cow Injures Farmer with AxeMilk Drinkers Are Turning to PowderLocal High School Dropouts Cut in HalfBritish Left Waffles on FalklandsDealers Will Hear Car Talk at NoonMiners Refuse to Work after DeathBeating Witness Provides NamesSquad Helps Dog Bite VictimKids Make Nutritious Snacks
Headlines
Stolen Painting Found by TreeProstitutes Appeal to PopeRed Tape Holds up BridgeDeer Kill 17,000Teenage Prostitution Problem is MountingChild Stool Great for Use in GardenShouting Match Ends Teacher’s HearingMan Robs then Kills HimselfLung Cancer in Women MushroomsMondale’s Offensive Looks Hard to BeatTuna Biting off Washington CoastChinese Apeman Dated
Headlines
II. Basic Units of Language
D. Sentences• Syntactic ambiguities
“She hit the boy with the big stick.”
“She hit the boy with the runny nose.”
Interpretation depends on structural preferences(certain constructions used more often,
favoured),as well as the prior discourse context.
III. Word Recognition
How long does it take to recognise a visual word?
– What is meant by “recognition” or “lexical access”?
– Can lexical access be accurately measured?
– What factors affect lexical access and when?
The “magic moment” (Balota, 1990) of lexical access:“At this moment, presumably there is recognition that
the stimulus is a word, and access of other information (such as the meaning of the word, its syntactic class, its sound, and its spelling) would be rapid if not immediate.” (Pollatsek & Rayner, 1990)
III. Word Recognition
• Measures
• Components
• Models
• Eye movements (EMs)
• Event-related potentials (ERPs)
Measures• Standard behavioural techniques
– lexical decision, naming, categorisation; also RSVP, self-paced reading
– priming, masking, lateralised presentation
– Donders (1868): subtractive method• assumes strictly serial stages of processing• additive vs. interactive effects
– automatic vs. strategic (Posner & Snyder, 1975)
unconsciousexogenousbottom-upbenefit
controlledendogenoustop-downcost & benefit
Measures• Eye movements (EMs)
• Neuroimaging– “Electrical”: EEG, MEG, (TMS)
– “Blood flow”: PET, fMRI
MEASURE
Normal reading
TASK
fixation duration (as well aslocation and sequence of EMs)
TIME RES.
GOOD
POOR“blood flow” imaging: fMRI, PET
“electrical” imaging: EEG, MEG
various word tasks
ms-by-ms
seconds
various word tasks
naming
categorisationlexical decision
Standard word recognition paradigms (± priming, ± masking):
RT~500 ms~600 ms~800 ms
~250 ms
Components
• Orthography of language– English vs. Hebrew or Japanese
• Language skill– beginning (novice) vs. skilled (expert) reader
– easy vs. difficult text
Components
• Intraword variables– word-initial bi/tri-grams clown vs. dwarf
– spelling-to-sound regularity hint vs. pint
– neighborhood consistency made vs. gave
– morphemes• prefix vs. pseudoprefix remind vs. relish
• compound vs. pseudocompound cowboy vs. carpet
Components
• Word variables– word length duke vs. fisherman
– word frequency student vs. steward
– AoA dinosaur vs. university
– ambiguity bank vs. edge, brim
– syntactic class open vs. closed; A,N,V
– concreteness tree vs. idea
– affective tone love vs. farm vs. fire
– etc.
Components
• Extraword variables– contextual predictability
The person saw the... moustache.The barber trimmed the...
– syntactic complexity Mary took the book. *Mary took the book was good. Mary knew the book. Mary knew the book was good.*Mary hoped the book. Mary hoped the book was good.
– discourse factors (anaphora, elaborative inferences)He assaulted her with his weapon.... ...knife... stabbed
Models• Dual-route account (Coltheart, 1978)
Direct route(addressed)
phonology
semantics
orthography
Indirect route(assembled)
Models• Dual-route account (Coltheart, 1978)
Direct route(addressed)
phonology
semantics
orthography
Indirect route(assembled)
Deep dyslexia- visual/semantic errors (sympathy -> orchestra)- can’t read nonwords
Models• Dual-route account (Coltheart, 1978)
Direct route(addressed)
phonology
semantics
orthography
Indirect route(assembled)
Surface dyslexia- regularization errors (broad -> brode)- Reg wds,NWs are OK (GPC rules intact)
Models• Interactive (Morton, 1969; Seidenberg & McClelland, 1989)
/m A k/
phonology
meaning
orthography
M A K E
context
Models• Modular (Forster, 1979; Fodor, 1983)
decision output
Lexicalprocessor
Syntacticprocessor
Messageprocessor
GeneralProblemSolver
input features
Models• Hybrid
– 2-stage: generate candidate set selection
– (Becker & Killion; Norris; Potter)