Test Bank Cognition ,6th ed.

Radvansky/Ashcraft

Chapter 9: Language

Multiple Choice Questions:

1. The formal discipline that takes language as its topic is __________.

a. psycholinguistics
b. speech pathology
c. linguistics
d. audiology
Page: 288
Type: factual
Answer: c

2. __________ is a shared symbolic system of communication.

a. A linguistic universal
b. A language
c. Verbal learning theory
d. Diagnostics
Page: 289
Type: factual
Answer: b

3. Language is a ____________ system.

a. symbolic
b. communication
c. shared
d. all of the above
Page: 289
Type: factual
Answer: d

4.Which of the following was NOT one of Hockett’s linguistic universals?

a. duality of patterning
b. arbitrariness
c. displacement
d. encoding
Page: 289
Type: factual
Answer: d

5.Features or characteristics that are common to all languages are __________.

a. a linguistic universal
b. a “true” language
c. a semanticity test
d. a Chinese room test
Page: 289
Type: factual
Answer: a

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6. The linguistic universal that specifies that “language conveys meaning” is __________.
a. duality of patterning
b. total feedback
c. productivity (generativity)
d. semanticity
Page: 289
Type: factual
Answer: d

7. “Each unit of language has a physical resemblance to its referent” is a definition of __________.
a. ideographic system
b. iconic system
c. symbolic system
d. cognitive economics
Page: 290
Type: factual
Answer: b

8. Which of the following is NOT associated with the concept of arbitrariness?

a. onomatopoeia
b. connections that are learned
c. naming
d. changes in definitions across time
Page: 291
Type: conceptual
Answer: a

9. Which of the following is NOT associated with the concept of arbitrariness?

a. connections that are learned
b. flexibility
c. naming
d. discreteness
Page: 291
Type: conceptual
Answer: d

10. Language is __________.

a. uniquely human
b. found in any form of communication
c. a rudimentary form of thought
d. only valid if it is spoken
Page: 293
Type: factual
Answer: a

11. Animals possess the ability to __________.

a. use language
b. communicate
c. use sign language
d. communicate about objects that are not present
Page: 293
Type: factual
Answer: b

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12. Animals lack the ability to communicate using the language universal of __________.
a. arbitrariness
b. semanticity
c. displacement
d. vocalization
Page: 293
Type: conceptual
Answer: c

13. Which of Miller’s (1973) five levels of language analysis is the analysis of word meaning and the
integration of word meaning within phrases or sentences?
a. deep structure
b. semantic analysis
c. phonological analysis
d. syntactic analysis
Page: 295
Type: factual
Answer: b

14. Which of Miller’s (1973) five levels of language analysis is the analysis of phrase and sentence meaning
with reference to knowledge in semantic memory?
a. belief-level analysis
b. semantic analysis
c. phonological analysis
d. conceptual analysis
Page: 295
Type: factual
Answer: d

15. The internalized knowledge of language and its rules that fully fluent speakers of a language have is
known as__________.
a. competence
b. performance
c. articulation
d. processing fluency
Page: 295
Type: factual
Answer: a

16. That background characteristics within the language have been proposed to change how people
understand the world reflects __________.
a. semantic functionality
b. encoding specificity
c. the case grammar approach
d. the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis
Page: 295
Type: factual
Answer: d

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17. Sapir and Whorf proposed that the language you know shapes the way you think about events in the
world around you; this phenomenon is known as __________.
a. semantic functionality
b. encoding specificity
c. case grammar
d. linguistic relativity
Page: 295
Type: factual
Answer: d

18. __________ supported the idea that how we think is influenced by the specific language that we speak.
a. Whorf
b. Hockett
c. Miller
d. Chompsky
Page: 295
Type: factual
Answer: a

19. Three variables are relevant to the production of consonants in English. They include all of the following
EXCEPT __________.
a. place of articulation
b. manner of articulation
c. voicing
d. authorization
Page: 298
Type: factual
Answer: d

20. The number of phonemes in English is approximately __________.

a. 200
b. 100
c. 50
d. 25
Page: 299
Type: factual
Answer: c

21. The sounds of language are graphically illustrated in __________.

a. electrographs
b. phonographs
c. spectrographs
d. audiophiles
Page: 300
Type: factual
Answer: c

22. The inability of a native Spanish-speaking monolingual individual to differentiate “EYES” from “ICE”
reflects __________.
a. semantic categorization
b. morpheme-based processing
c. categorical perception
d. syntactic analysis
Page: 300
Type: conceptual
Answer: c

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23. The extensiveness of your knowledge of the rules of permissible sound combinations in English refers to
your __________.
a. discreteness
b. phonemic competence
c. productive vocabulary
d. receptive vocabulary
Page: 302
Type: factual
Answer: b

24. Coarticulation is most likely to be encountered __________.

a. in most phrases
b. in barbershop quartets
c. only when voicing
d. only with transformational perception
Page: 303
Type: conceptual
Answer: a

25. Our ability to detect variations in speech sounds despite co-articulation and from speaker to speaker
reflects __________.
a. bad planning
b. infant perceptual errors
c. speech-to-sound correspondence rules
d. the problem of invariance
Page: 303
Type: factual
Answer: d

26. __________ is a situation in which existing knowledge of language biases one’s reasoning about what
one is hearing.
a. Veracity effect
b. Top-down bias
c. Representativeness
d. Confirmation bias
Page: 305
Type: factual
Answer: b

27. Which does NOT provide evidence for top-down processing in auditory language comprehension?
a. our belief that the pauses between words are larger than the pauses within words
b. the problem of invariance
c. phonemic restoration effect (Warren & Warren)
d. trichromatic theory (Young, von Helmholtz)
Page: 305
Type: conceptual
Answer: d

28. Categorical perception of phonemes suggests that speech perception is __________.

a. strongly influenced by conceptually driven processes
b. accurately reflective of the underlying continuum of sounds
c. more innate than acquired
d. strongly linked to vision
Page: 305
Type: conceptual
Answer: a

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29. Sentence structure is synonymous with __________.

a. prescriptive grammar
b. case grammar
c. syntax
d. semantics
Page: 308
Type: factual
Answer: c

30. The ordering of words in a sentence to show their relation to one another is __________.
a. morphological analysis
b. syntax
c. propositional representation
d. spreading activation
Page: 308
Type: factual
Answer: b

31. “Fire engine red” versus “red fire engine” illustrates the importance of __________.
a. word order
b. spreading activation in a semantic network
c. interactionist approach to language
d. phrase order
Page: 309
Type: applied
Answer: a

32. {(the patio)(resembles(a junkyard))} reflects __________.

a. phrase structure
b. semantic cases
c. morphological analysis
d. categorical perception
Page: 310
Type: applied
Answer: a

33. Which is NOT associated with transformational grammar?

a. phrase structure rules
b. semantic roles
c. deep structure
d. lexical insertion rules
Page: 312
Type: conceptual
Answer: b

34. Which of the following is NOT included within Chomsky’s transformational grammar?
a. deep structure
b. integration of semantic representation
c. surface structure
d. semantic cases
Page: 312
Type: conceptual
Answer: d

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35. Which is NOT true of the sentence “The shooting of the hunters was terrible”?
a. It is an ambiguous sentence.
b. It reveals a limitation of a pure phrase structure approach.
c. It has only one surface structure.
d. It illustrates the disambiguating role of syntax.
Page: 312
Type: conceptual
Answer: d

36. Derivational complexity refers to __________.

a. the number of grammatical transformations applied
b. the number of underlying propositions
c. the number of independent concepts
d. the number of phrase structures
Page: 313
Type: factual
Answer: a

37. Which is NOT true?

a. Syntactic structures can be primed.
b. More accessible information tends to be reported earlier in a sentence.
c. We delay sentence initiation if the concepts are hard to retrieve.
d. Transformational grammar assumes that we are aware of the semantic content before deriving
phrase structures.
Page: 314
Type: conceptual
Answer: d

38. The idea that language users tend to put older concepts earlier in an utterance than new concepts is called
__________.
a. asymmetric binding
b. the given-new strategy
c. temporal consistency
d. into question
Page: 315
Type: factual
Answer: b

39. Which is NOT a speech error?

a. shift
b. exchange
c. voicing
d. preservation
Page: 316
Type: factual
Answer: c

40. “To beer a pour” is an illustration of __________.

a. a speech error
b. a spectrogram
c. a blend
d. phase structure grammar
Page: 316
Type: applied
Answer: a

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41. The reality and nature of speech errors suggest that __________.
a. Freudian interpretations are always correct
b. cognition is flawed beyond usefulness
c. scientists are way too picky
d. language production is a complex set of steps
Page: 316
Type: conceptual
Answer: d

42. Mental lexicon is also known as __________.

a. semantics
b. syntax
c. grammar
d. sentence planning
Page: 317
Type: factual
Answer: a

43. Mental lexicon includes __________.

a. words and their meaning
b. phrase structure
c. syntactic rulebook
d. propositional memory
Page: 317
Type: factual
Answer: a

44. The smallest unit of meaning in language is __________.

a. phoneme
b. morpheme
c. lexicon
d. syntax
Page: 318
Type: factual
Answer: b

45. Which of the following is a morpheme?

a. Ga as in garage
b. -s as in cars
c. Disposable as in disposable diaper
d. Puh as in puh-leeze do not ask me about this
Page: 318
Type: applied
Answer: b

46. Polysemy is __________.

a. different syntaxes used to convey the same idea
b. the same syntax used to convey multiple ideas
c. when one word has multiple meanings
d. when multiple words mean the same thing
Page: 319
Type: factual
Answer: c

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47. People who are bilingual show __________ intelligence compared to people who speak one language.
a. lower
b. higher
c. similar
d. different
Page: 320
Type: factual
Answer: c

48. Your understanding of the function served by KEY in the phrase “the key opened the door” is most
closely related to which theoretical view of language processing?
a. Craik & Lockhart’s “depth of processing” account
b. elaborative encoding
c. Chomsky’s transformational grammar
d. the case grammar approach
Page: 323
Type: conceptual
Answer: d

49. The idea that the words in a sentence influence each other in terms of their meaning and relate to the
concepts conveyed by other words is best captured by the theory of __________.:
a. syntactic rules
b. semantic cases
c. pragmatic origins
d. phonetic coarticulation
Page: 323
Type: factual
Answer: b

50. Fillenbaum’s sentence “Don’t print that or I won’t sue you” is best described as __________.
a. perverse threat
b. threat
c. disordered threat
d. conjunctive statement
Page: 325
Type: applied
Answer: a

51. According to studies (such as that by McCandliss, Posner, & Givon [1997]), how many weeks of
processing words in a new language does it take for brain activity to resemble that with words in one’s
native language?
a. one
b. forty
c. twenty-five
d. five
Page: 330
Type: factual
Answer: d

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52. Right hemisphere language processing focuses more on __________.

a. integrating lexical information at the sentence level
b. articulating language
c. making remote associations
d. fine-grained, analytic processing
Page: 331
Type: factual
Answer: c

53. ERP studies investigating semantically anomalous sentences reveal that these sentences produce a
distinctive __________.
a. N400 ERP pattern
b. P600 ERP pattern
c. syntactic priming function
d. expressive aphasia
Page: 331
Type: factual
Answer: a

54. ERP studies investigating syntactically anomalous sentences reveal that these sentences produce a
distinctive __________.
a. N400 ERP pattern
b. P600 ERP Pattern
c. syntactic priming function
d. expressive aphasia
Page: 331
Type: factual
Answer: b

55. The disruption (a loss of all or some) of previously intact language skills caused by a brain-related
disorder or injury is __________.
a. aphasia
b. agnosia
c. apraxia
d. agraphia
Page: 332
Type: factual
Answer: a

56. The disruption (a loss of all or some) of previously intact visual object recognition abilities caused by a
brain-related disorder or injury is __________.
a. alexia
b. agraphia
c. anomia
d. agnosia
Page: 332
Type: factual
Answer: d

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57. Which of the following does NOT belong?

a. Broca’s aphasia
b. conduction aphasia
c. production aphasia
d. expressive aphasia
Page: 332
Type: conceptual
Answer: b

58. Aphasia is a loss of __________.

a. spoken language hearing
b. the ability to write
c. language abilities
d. memory for verbs
Page: 332
Type: factual
Answer: c

59. In Wernicke’s aphasia, __________ is NOT preserved.

a. comprehension
b. repetition
c. naming
d. syntax
Page: 333
Type: conceptual
Answer: a

60. The disruption (a loss of all or some) of previously intact word finding, either lexical or semantic, caused
by a brain-related disorder or injury is __________.
a. alexia
b. agraphia
c. anomia
d. agnosia
Page: 334
Type: factual
Answer: c

61. In conduction aphasia, __________ is NOT preserved.

a. comprehension
b. repetition
c. naming
d. syntax
Page: 334
Type: conceptual
Answer: b

62. Right hemisphere damage can result in a loss in the ability to __________.
a. draw inferences
b. repeat language heard verbatim
c. produce language
d. comprehend language
Page: 335
Type: conceptual
Answer: a

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True/False Questions:

63. Linguistics is the study of language as it is used and learned by people. FALSE (p. 288)
64. The study of linguistics was one of the foundations of the cognitive revolution. TRUE (p. 288)
65. Sign language is a true language. TRUE (p. 289)
66. Spreading activation is a linguistic universal. FALSE (p. 289)
67. Understanding productivity is argued to be the key to understanding language. TRUE (p. 293)
68. George Miller suggested the idea of linguistic relativity. FALSE (p. 295)
69. Languages with more phonemes allow more complex ideas to be communicated. FALSE (p. 299)
70. Vowels involve no disruption of the airflow. TRUE (p. 300)
71. With training, grammatical versus ungrammatical sentence structures do not impact shadowing
performance. FALSE (p. 304)
72. The fact that it is harder to understand someone on the telephone than someone you are speaking to in
person is inconsistent with the motor theory of speech perception. FALSE (p. 306)
73. In speech, pauses between words are greater than pauses within words. FALSE (p. 307)
74. Any theory of speech recognition must account for both data-driven and conceptually driven processing.
TRUE (p. 338)
75. In transformational grammar, because of the separation of the treatment of semantics, a sentence’s true
meaning may not be reflected in its surface structure. TRUE (p. 312)
76. Deep structures are converted into surface structures by transformational rules. TRUE (p. 312)
77. In TG, “The boy kissed the girl” and “Did the boy kiss the girl?” differ in their deep structure. FALSE (p.
312)
78. Chomsky’s work never dealt satisfactorily with meaning. TRUE (p. 314)
79. Exposure to a syntactic structure can prime future use of that structure. TRUE (p. 314)
80. The syntactic structure of sentences can prime your use of those same syntactic structures. TRUE (p. 314)
81. We begin our utterances before the syntax and semantics of the final portion of the sentence have been
worked out. TRUE (p. 314)
82. We begin our utterances when the first part of the sentence has been planned but before the syntax and
semantics of the final portion have been worked out. TRUE (p. 314)
83. In sentence production, information that is more readily available generally occurs earlier. TRUE (p. 315)
84. In the case grammar approach, a semantic case is the same thing as a case role. TRUE (p. 323)
85. Syntax is not influenced by semantics. FALSE [p326]
86. The influence of both syntax and semantics on language processing is called the interactionist view.
TRUE (p. 326)
87. Garden path sentences facilitate comprehension. FALSE (p. 327)
88. Case grammar can handle figurative use of words (e.g., the stressors chased him in his sleep). TRUE (p.
329)
89. With sufficient exposure, the ERPs to nonsense words look like ERPs to meaningful words. TRUE (p.
331)
90. People with conduction aphasia have difficulty accurately repeating what they have just heard. TRUE (p.
334)
91. Agraphia is an inability to do mathematical computations. FALSE (p. 334)
92. Only the left hemisphere is involved in language processing. FALSE (p. 335)

Fill in the Blank/Short Answer:

93. What is the difference between linguistics and psycholinguistics?

94. What is the name of the idea that there is no direct correspondence between the words of a language and
the thing it represents? (ARBINTRARINESS)
95. Identify the three basic and two additional levels of analysis that are used in language comprehension:
1. Phonology
2. _______________ (SYNTAX)
3. _______________ (LEXICAL or SEMANTIC)
4. _______________ (CONCEPTUAL)
5. Belief

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96. The study of the sounds of a language is called ________. (PHONOLOGY)

97. Identify two weaknesses of the transformational grammar approach.
98. How do the approaches of transformational grammar and case grammar differ?
99. According to Chomsky’s transformational grammar theory, each utterance has a ____________ structure
and a corresponding _________ structure. (SURFACE; DEEP)
100.What is the mental lexicon?
101.Provide an example of a statement in which semantics overpowers syntax.
102.Provide an example of a garden path sentence.
103.What is polysemy?
104.The smallest meaningful unit of language is called a ____________. (MORPHEME)
105.The loss of the ability to produce language is associated with ________ aphasia. (BROCA’S)
106.The loss of the ability to comprehend language is associated with ________ aphasia. (WERNIKE’S)

Essay Questions:

107.How are the concepts of language and communication similar, and how are they different?
108.In what ways are language processes rigid, and in what ways are they flexible?
109.When a person moves from one place to another, he or she may retain an accent that is consistent with
where he or she was from originally. How does this relate to categorical perception?
110.How do the effects caused by damage in Wernicke’s and Broca’s areas differ? Be sure to use appropriate
technical terms.
111.Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of using patterns of preserved and impaired language functions
after brain damage or injury to learn about human language processing.
112.Some people have described language as being a window into cognition. Why do you think a person
would say this?

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