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Cognitive Psychology C81COG1. Language

Dr Jonathan Stirk

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Summary of lectures

6 lectures1. Psycholinguistics2. Word recognition & reading3. Memories in reading4. Iconic memory & reading (Sensory memory)

Categorical memory5. Structures & processes6. Representation of meaning

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Useful Books

Harley, T. (2001). The psychology of language: from data to theory (2nd Ed). Hove: Psychology Press.

Underwood, G. & Batt, V. (1996). Reading and understanding. Oxford: Blackwell.

Eysenck, M. (2001). Principles of Cognitive Psychology. Hove: Psychology Press.

Eysenck, M and Keane, M. (2000). Cognitive Psychology: A Student’s Handbook. (4th Ed). Hove: Psychology Press.

Payne, D. & Wenger, M. (1998). Cognitive Psychology. New York: Houghton-Mifflin.

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Further reading

For further information see Chapter 2 of Trevor Harley’s book

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Why should we study language?

Language is a unique form of abstraction, which is at the heart of cognition

Language has a major impact on the form of representation of information in memory

Language influences perception, from which we obtain the basic data for cognition

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Why Should Psychologists Study Reading?

Studies suggest that there is a large proportion of dyslexics within the prison system

At start of 2003, approx 72,500 inmates. Estimates of dyslexics : 17.5 - 50% (>12,500)

Dyslexics lacking appropriate support from early years of education, may lead to:

– poor literacy and numeracy skills – poor employment prospects all of which play their part in the climate of

offending– lack of confidence and low self esteem – boredom, disaffection – frustration, anger – behavioural problems

All of these factors may affect the development of criminal behaviour

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Some questions about the psychology of language

Q1. How do we produce sentences we may never have heard?

A1. By using generative rules (PSG) Q2. How do these rules govern the meaning of a

sentence? A2. By translating underlying meanings into surface

structures Q3. What else does a psychology of language need

to explain? A3. How we use language (Pragmatics)

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Psycholinguistics

‘The study of the psychological processes of language’

Understanding language (comprehension), producing language, remembering language, reading, speaking, writing

Psycholinguists divide language into domains/aspects:– Semantics– Syntax– Pragmatics– Phonetics– Phonology– Morphology

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Sentences, syntax and semanticsLanguage Comprehension

How do we understand and construct sentences? – We have the ability to understand / produce

sentences which we may never have heard or used before

How do we assemble a representation of the MEANING of a sentence?

Word order is important in determining meaning– SYNTAX

1. The boy chased the dog.2. The dog chased the boy.3. The dog was chased by the boy.4. Boy the dog chased the. Sentences 1 and 2 have the same word order structure

(article noun verb article noun) but have different meanings Sentences 1 and 3 have different word order structure but

have the same meaning Sentence 4 contains the same words as 1 & 2 but makes no

sense! (not grammatical)

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Examples of how syntax effects meaning

Same syntax Same

meaning

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Grammar & Parsing

Word order is determined by rules of grammar– Phrase Structure Grammar (PSG)

THE CAT ATE THE MOUSE

article noun verb article noun

Noun phrase Verb phrase

Rule 1. S = NP + VP; Rule 2. NP= article + noun; Rule 3. VP = verb + NP

Sentence

Noun Phrase Verb Phrase

Det Adj Noun Verb Noun Phrase

Det Adj Noun

The aging professor taught the sleepy students.

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Parsing – Parse Tree

Subject ObjectVerb

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Rule 1 S = NP + VP

Rule 2 NP = DET + (ADJ) + N

Rule 3 VP = V + NP

Rule 4 DET = a, an, the …

Rule 5 ADJ = aging, sleepy …

Rule 6 N = professor, students…

Rule 7 V = taught, lectured …..

PSG Re-write Rules

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Creating new sentences

We can use these rules to create new well-formed sentences

“The elephant drank the water”“The woman understood the joke”

However, parsing may not be as easy as one would think when it comes to AMBIGUOUS PHRASES

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Ambiguity She bit into the doughnut with relish!

Syntactic category (lexical) ambiguity

‘relish’ as adjective ‘relish’ as noun

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Structurally Ambiguous Phrases

THEY ARE EXCITING STUDENTS

S

N

NP

V NP

VP

NAdj.

Structure 1

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Phrase structure grammar helps untangle ambiguity

THEY ARE EXCITING STUDENTS

N

NP

VP

VP

NVAux.

S Structure 2

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Click displacement studies– Garrett, Bever & Fodor (1966)– Spoken sentence presented to 1 ear with headphones– Click presented in other ear at some point in the sentence– Aim is to report at what point the click appeared– Major syntactic\processing units should resist interruption

and hence the position of the click should be displaced (migrate) from its’ actual position

THAT HE WAS HAPPY WAS EVIDENT FROM THE WAY HE SMILED

– Click displaced to right to end of a clause

Investigating Parsing & Unit Size

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Investigating Parsing & Unit Size

However, one has to perceive, parse, understand, remember & respond– Demands are high, and displacement could occur at any of these

stages really– Reber & Anderson (1970) used ‘subliminal’ clicks– Listeners asked to guess where the non-audible clicks were– Displacement occurred as in Garrett et al (1966) study

Suggests that displacement may occur in the RESPONSE stage

Phrase structure grammar is real but click displacement is not a good demonstration of it

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PSG has trouble with meanings

Phrase structure grammar rules however allow us to produce meaningless yet grammatically correct sentences

COLOURLESS GREEN IDEAS SLEEP FURIOUSLY

Adj.Adj. Verb Adv.Noun

Noun Phrase Verb Phrase

Ugly biology students groan considerably

Ageing university lecturers die painfullyARE MEANINGFUL

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PSG has trouble with Related Sentences

1. The vampire chases the ghost.

2. The ghost is chased by the vampire.

These sentences are clearly related in meaning but PSG fails to capture this meaning. This is where Transformational Grammar steps in

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Transformational Grammar

Noam Chomsky influential during the linguistic period of the 60’s & 70’s

Competence & Performance– Competence is our knowledge of language in general & the

rules of language (linguistics)– Performance refers to our actual use of the language we

know. Our ability to actually follow the rules at any specific time (psycholinguistics)

He developed the idea of transformational grammar to help explain the role of meaning in sentence production

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Transformational Grammar

Special set of re-write rules which act on a string of symbols (Unlike PSG rules which act on single units)– Active to Passive: “John eats the food” -> “John

ate the food”– Statement to questions: “This is a cat” -> “Is this a

cat?” etc.

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Transformational Grammar

Sentences have surface structure and deep structure (s- and d-structure)

Surface structure – grammatical form (written or spoken) Deep structure – meaning

1. The shooting of the lecturers was terrible (SS)

Derived from:2. The way in which the lecturers shoot was terrible (DS1)

OR

3. It was terrible that the lecturers were shot (DS2)

Transform

ed to:

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Transformational Grammar

Chomsky argued that sentences (written or spoken) are generated by the operation of transformational rules on a deep-structure representation generated by phrase-structure rules (grammar), resulting in a surface-structure representation

PSG → Deep structure →TG →Surface structure

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Transformational Grammar

1. Jonathan is easy to please2. Jonathan is eager to please

3. It is easy to please Jonathan 4. It is eager to please Jonathan **(non-grammatical)

Harley, T (p. 39)

Similar surface structures

But different deep structuresTransform using same rule

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Pragmatics

The study of the INTENDED meaning of language / sentences.

E.g. We may say “wonderful weather!” on a rainy day

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A psychology of language must account for performance in language use

A. MEMORY PERFORMANCE LIMITATIONS

The man ran. ^

The man the dog bit ran. ^

The man the dog the girl owned bit ran.  ^

The man the dog the girl who fed the cat owned bit ran.

[This is a self-embedded (centre embedded) sentence]

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A psychology of language must account for performance in language use

B. SOCIAL CONTEXT INFLUENCES SENTENCE PRODUCTION / MEANING (Pragmatics)

e.g. "Can you pass the salt?"e.g. Sergeant to Soldier:

"Do you see that cigarette butt?“

C. DIFFERENCES IN THE JUSTIFICATION AND VERIFICATION OF SENTENCES

Compare: "This is a language lecture"With: "Life is an empty dream"

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A psychology of language must account for performance in language use

D. PRODUCTION OF NON-GRAMMATICAL SENTENCESYou: “Time for a drink?”Me: “Trying to give it up”You: “Please yourself”

E. PERCEPTION - PRODUCTION VARIATIONS

PERCEPTION: recognition of words, their relations and the theme of the incoming message

PRODUCTION: translation of an idea (Deep Structure) into a form (Surface Structure) which will both capture the intended meaning and be recognizable. Hesitations reflect planning of the translation process.

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A psychology of language must account for performance in language use

F. STYLE AND SKILL"It was the man with the red nose""Was it not the man with the red nose?"

 G. METAPHORICAL & POETIC USE OF LANGUAGE

Question: "Where are my chocolates?" (hesitation)

Answer: "Ah . . . where are the snows of yesteryear?“

Question: "Is Mrs Thatcher a good politician?" (hesitation)

Answer: "She has good taste in hats"

Statement: Adolf Hitler was a ButcherStatement: David kicked the bucket!