Cognition

Chapter 9

Language I:
Introduction to
Language and Language
Comprehension
Cognition 7e, Margaret Matlin Chapter 9
 Introduction

human language is probably one of the

most complex processes to be found
anywhere on our planet
productivity of language
psycholinguistics

Cognition 7e, Margaret Matlin Chapter 9

 The Nature of
Language
phoneme
morpheme
morphology
syntax
grammar
semantics
pragmatics

Cognition 7e, Margaret Matlin Chapter 9

 The Nature of
Language
Background on the Structure of
Language
phrase structure
constituents
nouns
verbs
working memory

Cognition 7e, Margaret Matlin Chapter 9

 Constituents

Cognition 7e, Margaret Matlin Chapter 9

 The Nature of
Language
A Brief History of Psycholinguistics
Chomsky's Approach
• language abilities explained in terms of a
complex system of rules and principles
represented in the minds of speakers
• humans have innate language skills
• language is modular (language is special, not
processed the same as other cognitive tasks)
• surface structure vs. deep structure of
sentences
• ambiguous sentences

Cognition 7e, Margaret Matlin Chapter 9

 The Nature of
Language
A Brief History of Psycholinguistics
Reactions to Chomsky's Theory
• early enthusiasm and later revisions
• research failed to support the prediction
that people would take longer to process
sentences requiring numerous
transformations
• later theories provided constraints on
language learner's inborn knowledge
• information conveyed in individual words

Cognition 7e, Margaret Matlin Chapter 9

 The Nature of
Language
A Brief History of Psycholinguistics
Psycholinguistic Theories Emphasizing
Meaning
emphasis on human mind rather than on
structure of language
semantics

Cognition 7e, Margaret Matlin Chapter 9

 The Nature of
Language
A Brief History of Psycholinguistics
Psycholinguistic Theories Emphasizing
Meaning
Cognitive-Functional Approach (usage-based
linguistics)—Tomasello
• the function of human language in everyday life is
to communicate meaning to other individuals
• cognitive processes intertwined with language
comprehension and production
• children use flexible strategies to create
increasingly complex language
• adults use language strategically

Cognition 7e, Margaret Matlin Chapter 9

 The Nature of
Language
Factors Affecting Comprehension
Negatives
negative statements require more processing
time than affirmative statements
affirmative statements produce fewer errors
The Passive Voice
active form of a sentence is easier to
understand than the passive form
Nested Structures
can result in memory overload

Cognition 7e, Margaret Matlin Chapter 9

 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

Cognition 7e, Margaret Matlin Chapter 9

And some communications are just
hard to understand:
YouTube - The missile knows where
it is (portfolio length)

Cognition 7e, Margaret Matlin Chapter 9

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

Cognition 7e, Margaret Matlin Chapter 9

 The Nature of
Language
Factors Affecting Comprehension
Ambiguity
Ambiguous Sentence Structure
• wandering down the wrong path
• we can usually understand ambiguous
language, but we respond more quickly and
more accurately when the language is
straightforward
• Ambiguous headlines

Cognition 7e, Margaret Matlin Chapter 9

 The Nature of
Language
In Depth: Neurolinguistics
Neurolinguistics
Individuals with Aphasia
aphasia
Broca's area/Broca's aphasia—expressive-
language deficit
Wernicke's area/Wernicke's aphasia—
receptive-language deficit
both kinds of aphasia can decrease
grammatical accuracy

Cognition 7e, Margaret Matlin Chapter 9

Broca’s Area &
Wernicke’s Area

Cognition 7e, Margaret Matlin Chapter 9

 The Nature of
Language
In Depth: Neurolinguistics
Hemispheric Specialization
lateralization
the left-hemisphere's role in language
the right-hemisphere's role in language
the hemispheres working together

Cognition 7e, Margaret Matlin Chapter 9

 The Nature of
Language
In Depth: Neurolinguistics
Neuroimaging Research with Normal
Individuals
functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)
left temporal lobe
Gernsbacher and Robertson (2005)—"A"/"The"
study
virtually identical patterns of activation in left hemisphere
right hemisphere response differently to connected
language ("the" sentences) than to disconnected
language ("a" sentences)

Cognition 7e, Margaret Matlin Chapter 9

 Basic Reading
Processes
Reading requires virtually every cognitive
process
Reading is remarkably efficient and
accurate
Many challenges including (in English)
irregular pronunciations due to lack of
one-to-one correspondence between
alphabet and speech sounds (phonemes)

Cognition 7e, Margaret Matlin Chapter 9

 Basic Reading
Processes
Discovering the Meaning of
Unfamiliar Words
Context
perceiving familiar words
resolving the meaning of ambiguous
words
discovering the meaning of unfamiliar
words

Cognition 7e, Margaret Matlin Chapter 9

 Basic Reading
Processes
Discovering the Meaning of
Unfamiliar Words
Sternberg and Powell (1983)
• context can provide several kinds of
information cues about the meaning of an
unknown word (e.g., when and where an
unknown item occurs)
• words that appear in a rich context of
different cues are more likely to be
accurately defined

Cognition 7e, Margaret Matlin Chapter 9

 Basic Reading
Processes
Discovering the Meaning of
Unfamiliar Words
Sternberg and Powell (1983) (continued)
• large individual differences
• ability to use contextual cues and provide
accurate definitions for unfamiliar words
correlated with tests of vocabulary,
reading comprehension, and general
intelligence

Cognition 7e, Margaret Matlin Chapter 9

 Basic Reading
Processes
Reading and Working Memory
• readers who have a relatively large
working-memory span can quickly
process ambiguous sentences
• people with large working-memory spans
are especially skilled in reading difficult
passages and solving complex verbal
problems
• working memory helps us to understand
complicated sentences

Cognition 7e, Margaret Matlin Chapter 9

 Basic Reading
Processes
Two Pathways for Reading Words
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)

Cognition 7e, Margaret Matlin Chapter 9

 Basic Reading
Processes
Two Pathways for Reading Words
Research on the Dual-Route Approach
Bradshaw and Nettleton (1974)—
direct-access approach
• pairs of words with similar spelling, but different
sounds
• read first word silently and then pronounce
second word out loud
• no interference indicated by no hesitation in
pronouncing second word
• suggests that we do not silently pronounce each
word during normal reading

Cognition 7e, Margaret Matlin Chapter 9

 Basic Reading
Processes
Two Pathways for Reading Words
Research on the Dual-Route Approach
Luo and coauthors (1998)—indirect-access
approach
• pairs of words judged 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)
• 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)

Cognition 7e, Margaret Matlin Chapter 9

 Basic Reading
Processes
Two Pathways for Reading Words
Research on the Dual-Route Approach
Word sounds may be especially important
when children begin to read. Children
with high phonological awareness have
superior reading skills.
Children vs. adults—tongue twisters

Cognition 7e, Margaret Matlin Chapter 9

 Basic Reading
Processes
Two Pathways for Reading Words
Research on the Dual-Route Approach
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
• individual differences

Cognition 7e, Margaret Matlin Chapter 9

 Basic Reading
Processes
Two Pathways for Reading Words
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
• problem—even skilled adult readers achieve only about
25% accuracy when they look at an incomplete
sentence and guess which word is missing

Cognition 7e, Margaret Matlin Chapter 9

 Basic Reading
Processes
Two Pathways for Reading Words
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
• emphasizes developing children's awareness of
phonemes
• phonics training helps children who have reading
problems

Cognition 7e, Margaret Matlin Chapter 9

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

The issue of basic literacy

Cognition 7e, Margaret Matlin Chapter 9