Psychology of Language
This summary builds upon the book ‘The New Psychology of Language’ by T. Dijkstra and D. Peeters (2023).
Course: Psychology of Language
Tilburg University Fall 2024
Midterm: chapter 1 to 6 (30 multiple-choice questions) 35%
Endterm: chapter 1 to 11 and article Gervan and Mehler (2010) (part multiple-choice, part open questions) 65%
Italic concepts in book in yellow
Names in orange
Index
Chapter 1 Basic Assumptions..................................................................................................... 3
1.1 Introduction....................................................................................................................... 3
1.2 Embodiedness................................................................................................................... 4
1.3 Embeddedness.................................................................................................................. 4
1.4 Mental models................................................................................................................... 4
1.5 Incremental processing..................................................................................................... 5
1.6 Consequences of this view on language........................................................................... 5
Chapter 2 Language and Communication.................................................................................. 5
2.1 Introduction....................................................................................................................... 5
2.2 Verbal and non-verbal communication..............................................................................6
2.3 Language and communication in context.........................................................................6
2.4 The medium and the message.......................................................................................... 7
2.5 Evolution of communication and language.......................................................................7
2.6 The sender-receiver model of communication..................................................................8
Chapter 3 Language User Framework........................................................................................ 8
3.1 Introduction....................................................................................................................... 8
3.2 The Language User Framework......................................................................................... 9
3.3 Linguistics and psycholinguistics..................................................................................... 11
Chapter 4 Language Research Techniques.............................................................................. 12
4.1 Introduction..................................................................................................................... 12
4.2 The experimental basics................................................................................................. 12
4.3 Research techniques measuring word retrieval..............................................................12
4.3.1 Off-line measurement: memory................................................................................13
4.3.2 On-line measurement: behavioral reaction time and neuroscientific studies...........13
4.4 Behavioral reaction time tasks........................................................................................ 14
4.4.1 Lexical decision: visual and auditory.........................................................................14
4.4.2 Word naming............................................................................................................. 14
4.4.3 Picture naming.......................................................................................................... 15
4.5 Techniques used at word and sentence level..................................................................15
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, 4.5.1 Self-paced reading.................................................................................................... 15
4.5.2 Eye tracking.............................................................................................................. 15
4.6 Neurophysiological and neuroimaging techniques..........................................................16
4.6.1 Electroencephalography (EEG).................................................................................. 16
4.6.2 Magnetoencephalography (MEG)..............................................................................16
4.6.3 Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)........................................................17
4.6.4 Positron emission topography (PET)..........................................................................17
4.6.5 Computerized axial tomography (CAT/CT)................................................................17
4.7 Combining experimental control with ecological validity................................................18
4.7.1 Computer screen paradigms..................................................................................... 18
4.7.2 In-lab interaction paradigms..................................................................................... 18
4.7.3 Virtual reality paradigms........................................................................................... 18
Chapter 5 Recognizing Spoken Words...................................................................................... 19
5.1 Spoken word recognition: the essence............................................................................19
5.2 Spoken word recognition: representations......................................................................19
5.3 Spoken word recognition: processes...............................................................................21
5.3.1 Categorical perception.............................................................................................. 21
5.3.2 Phoneme restoration................................................................................................. 21
5.4 Models of spoken word recognition.................................................................................21
5.4.1 Cohort model............................................................................................................ 22
5.4.2 TRACE model............................................................................................................. 22
5.4.3 Shortlist model.......................................................................................................... 23
5.4.4 Recent computational developments........................................................................23
5.4.5 A neurobiological approach to spoken word recognition...........................................23
5.5 Spoken word recognition: empirical studies....................................................................24
5.5.1 Lexical embeddings and Cohort’s sequentiality assumption.....................................24
5.5.2 Speed of spoken word recognition............................................................................24
5.5.3 Time-course of spoken word recognition and top-down effects................................24
5.6 Spoken word recognition: the role of context.................................................................25
5.6.1 Fast effect of linguistic and non-linguistic context on spoken word recognition.......25
5.6.2 Context effects: The role of your mental model of the speaker................................25
5.6.3 Context effects: The role of embodiedness...............................................................25
Chapter 6 Recognizing Printed and Written Words...................................................................26
6.1 Printed and written word recognition: the essence.........................................................26
6.2 Printed and written word recognition: representations...................................................26
6.2.1 Letter features and letters........................................................................................ 26
6.2.2 Syllables and morphemes......................................................................................... 27
6.2.3 Writing systems or scripts: Shallow vs. deep orthography........................................27
6.3 Printed and written word recognition: processes............................................................27
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, 6.3.1 Are words looked up in the lexicon one by one or in parallel?..................................28
6.4 Models of visual word recognition...................................................................................28
6.4.1 Interactive Activation model..................................................................................... 28
6.4.2 Spatial Coding model................................................................................................ 29
6.4.3 Dual Route Cascaded model..................................................................................... 30
6.4.4 Multilink model.......................................................................................................... 30
6.4.5 Parallel distributed processing models......................................................................31
6.4.6 Recent computational developments........................................................................31
6.5 Printed and written word recognition: empirical studies.................................................31
6.5.1 Speed of written word recognition............................................................................31
6.5.2 Activation of phonology in word reading...................................................................32
6.5.3 Activation of orthography during listening................................................................32
6.6 Visual word recognition: the role of context.................................................................32
6.6.1 Cross-modal priming with lexical decision................................................................32
6.6.2 Predicting words in sentence context.......................................................................32
Chapter 1 Basic Assumptions
1.1 Introduction
4 key aspects of language:
1. Embodiedness: using the body while communicating.
2. Embeddedness: the contexts in which language arises.
3. Mental models: the underlying representations of language.
4. Incremental processing: pieces of information follow each other up.
Interrelated aspects in which language serves as a tool.
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,1.2 Embodiedness
Humans process language by way of their bodies (eg. reading through the eyes or with the hands for blind people).
Non-verbal information is conveyed through the body. Communication and language are inherently linked to our
senses, to our movements and gestures and to cognition. Communication can take place via all our senses
however, their importance differs across cultures.
Language comprehension mainly relies on information transmitted via the visual and the auditory modality. Due to
the differences between eyes and ears in their physical properties, the information transferred is different in density
and dimensions. Similar considerations hold for different types of language production. Speaking and writing (or
typing) differ on many dimensions, including articulation, discreteness, speed of information exchange and the
information conveyed.
Language offers a number of tools to encode information efficiently in the utterances of a sender:
Words referring to specific objects or events.
Syntax
Syntactic properties
Co-speech gestures and facial expressions
However, also limitations to express complex concepts and feelings.
This can somewhat be overcome by how a message is sent the medium is part of the message (cf. 2.4).
1.3 Embeddedness
All language use takes place in context. The perspective of a personality is in a central position, but interacts heavily
with the environment embeddedness in context.
2 types of non-linguistic context:
1. Physical (bodily) context: language is affected by bodily limitations.
Eg. articulation, shape of the speech organs.
2. Social and cultural context: language is fine-tuned to the social and cultural context they occur in.
Eg. babytalk with children.
Verbal and non-verbal aspects play a role.
Cultural frame shifting = the impact of cultural norms of a particular language community on the
speaker’s personality as they themselves or others perceive it (mostly in bilinguals).
Generally in language comprehension, information about the context is added to the meaning of the utterance itself
by the addressee of the message. This meaning may concern information about the past, present or future of the
body or the world. In language production, this process is the other way around the speaker/signer links a
meaning to an utterance taking into account available information about the (verbal and non-verbal) context in which
the utterance is made.
Linguistic context = our knowledge about the different levels of the language in use (eg. semantic or syntax).
Theories and models of language use and language processing must take the various types of context into
account when trying to explain the mental processes that support our linguistic abilities.
1.4 Mental models
Human beings try to make sense of the world surrounding them this happens through internal models, i.e. a
simplified approximation of aspects that are relevant for physical and social survival.
The current situation is represented in terms of various aspects:
Physical: gravity, color, material objects, loudness.
Biological: perception, bodily senses and movement.
Psychological: emotional value or abstract meaning.
Sociological: your role in relation to others.
Intertwined concepts.
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,A mental model represents information about content but also about other aspects of information present. Mental
models develop over time. When new information arrives, the mental model is dynamically adapted in order to
represent it in a detailed way, making use of space, time causality and intentions.
To understand what another person is saying, we must compare the incoming signal to stored information about
language: word information in our long term memory, word order information, but also meaning and world
knowledge. Therefore, mental models are updated all the time.
Mental models are important:
1. Mental models contain both abstract and embodied information.
2. Mental models must imply coherent brain activity in which different modalities participate and interact.
3. Language processing can go to different depths and involve different stages.
1.5 Incremental processing
Mental models are multidimensional, but language processing is one-dimensional (like a timeline). Pieces of
information are processed incrementally a series of different elements that follow one another in time and build
on each other. Language is hierarchically organized, such that smaller elements (eg. sounds) are usually part of larger
elements (eg. words). Incrementality seems to hold for both smaller and larger pieces of information. Efficient
processing implies that receivers do not wait until the utterance is finished, but process all information they can at
each moment in time and predict what is coming next. Speech can be accompanied by hand gestures and meaningful
facial expressions.
1.6 Consequences of this view on language
The four aspects of language as described here have consequences on the view on language:
Phylogenesis = language evolution in humans.
o We should consider language evolution in terms of the human body and human society (eg.
language families/language trees).
Ontogenesis = language development in the human child.
o The embodiedness assumption stresses the importance of the genetic bases of language, while the
embeddedness assumption considers language acquisition in relation to social and physically
oriented interactions with caretakers, as well as cognitive aspects having to do with attention,
memory and cognitive control.
Discussion box 1
Embodiedness vs. embodiment
The term ‘embodiment’ implies a stronger reliance of language on other modalities than is advocated in this book,
which proposes that we possess both abstract and more sense-oriented conceptual representations.
Embodiedness implies that our body is involved in many of our communicative activities.
Chapter 2 Language and Communication
2.1 Introduction
Communication (short) = the exchange of information, ideas or feelings.
The term ‘communication’ has a broader application than the term ‘language’ does.
Communication can be seen as a transaction; participants make meaning together.
Communication is also done to influence others, to develop relationships and to fulfil social obligations.
Humans need communication therefore, broader definition.
Communication (broad) = every action with which a person exchanges information about needs, desires, perceptions,
knowledge, or affective states.
Can be intentional or unintentional.
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, Can proceed via conventional or non-conventional signals.
Can proceed via linguistic or non-linguistic signals.
Can proceed via spoken or other channels.
2.2 Verbal and non-verbal communication
A distinction can be made between non-verbal communication/body language and verbal communication or
language. However, these non-verbal signals contribute to verbal communication and vice versa. Our cognitive
systems are non-modular = i.e. not functioning as fully independent systems.
Eg. sign language relies not only on manual information but also facial and lip movements.
Eg. pointing as an example in which verbal and non-verbal types of information often come together. “The
train station is right that way” [pointing towards ‘that way’].
Eg. McGurk effect = listening to the sound ‘ba’ with lip movements of the sound ‘ga’. Listeners then heard the
sound ‘da’.
o This finding indicates that the brain continuously integrates visual bodily and auditory linguistic
information evidence for non-modularity.
The verbal and non-verbal signals that we produce as communicators can be classified into different subcategories as
a function of how they refer to something.
Indexical = the relation between sign and its referent (eg. smoke refers to fire).
Iconic = their form physically resembles their meaning (eg. the sound ‘beep’).
Symbolic = the link between form and meaning is arbitrary and therefore culturally learned (eg. ‘tree’ does
not look or sound like a tree).
2.3 Language and communication in context
Communication, including language, always takes place in a specific context (cf. embeddedness, chapter 1). When
communicating, participants rely on mutual, shared knowledge or common ground. They build up and rely on
knowledge they share with their specific interlocutor(s) and also take into account what knowledge and beliefs any
member of their community is assumed to possess.
Eg. conversations with a right-wing politician will be different than conversations with your toddler.
Therefore, not only the physical situation, but also the psychological and the cultural situation contribute to
the information exchange.
Context changes the words that are used in a conversation: ‘I’ versus ‘us’, or ‘here’ versus ‘there’.
Because knowledge systems can be very different across individuals, this implies that the information sent is not
always the same as the information received distorted information may lead to difference of opinion, or
miscommunication. Inherent to communication is that participants bring important non-linguistic characteristics to
the communicative situation that affect linguistic communication.
Eg. gender, cultural background, relation between sender and receiver (cf. 2.6).
Communication often takes place in noisy situations.
Noise = any stimulus, external or internal, that disrupts the sharing of meaning.
o External = distractions happen, eg. loud train.
o Internal = in the mind, eg. daydreaming.
Semantic noise = unintended meanings that the perceived utterances evoke. Eg. ‘have a nice day’ can be said
sarcastically.
Messages (eg. words, sounds, actions) are the complex meanings that are expressed via verbal and non-verbal
signals.
Encoding = when ideas and feelings are turned into messages.
Decoding = turning messages into ideas and feelings.
Feedback/back-channeling = verbal or non-verbal reactions to messages that indicate whether a message is
seen, heard and/or understood.
o Context-dependent and sometimes ambiguous (eg. nodding).
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