WHAT IS PSYCHOLINGUISTICS
WHAT IS PSYCHOLINGUISTICS
v Psycholinguistics investigates the mental mechanisms underlying language processing. (Cognitive)
v How to perceive words and store them in the mind, how to understand a sentence, how to learn to read, how language and writing systems influence mental organizations.
TWO ASPECTS OF PSYCHOLINGUISTICS:
v Language Comprehension: how we understand the meaning of words and sentences (receptive process)
v Language Production: how we speak and use language (productive process)
EXAMPLE: LANGUAGE PRODUCTION
v Language production is a process from idea generation to language expression.
v It is a mental process that is heavily influenced by language users’ culture.
IDEA: CROSS-CULTURAL COMMUNICATION
v People using the same language (i.e. Indonesian Language) but coming from different cultures.
v Example: Cultural differences in directness – how explicitly and clearly do we say what we mean.
BRITISH PROFESSOR
(least direct)
“Mr. Gore impresses one as very intelligent. As to his maturity and readiness for graduate study, I can say very little, having had an opportunity to observe him only under relatively unfavorable conditions.”
AMERICAN PROFESSOR
(intermediate directness)
“In my judgment, Gore is very intelligent. During the time I have known him, I have seen him grow in maturity; I hope and expect that this will continue when he begins graduate study.”
AUSTRALIAN PROFESSOR
(most direct)
“Gore’s brilliant, there’s no doubt about that. But he’s a bit of a baby, with a lot of growing up to do.”
CHINESE PROFESSOR
(from Mainland)
(Ignore the fact)
“Gore is a very smart student. He was doing extremely well in my class. He gets along well with everyone and is respected by others.”
EXAMPLE: VISUAL WORD RECOGNITION
When people encounter a printed word, how do they identify it?
v Properties of the word
§ Visual or auditory (Modality)
§ Orthographic –whether a word is constructed in a legal way (e.g. “math” vs “mtah”)
§ Phonological (syllable: /cat/; phoneme: /k/, /e/, /t/,
§ Meaning
v In identifying a written word,
§ Visuo-orthographic analysis occurs. (activate, activation)
§ Is the meaning of a word accessed automatically?
§ Is the phonological information of a word accessed automatically?
EXAMPLE: WORD RECOGNITION
v An Experiment:
Task: Speak out the color name of the stimulus you will view. (red, blue, green)
Requirement: Complete the task as quickly and accurately as possible.
(The task was devised by Stroop, 1935 --the “Stroop task”.)
v The above finding suggests that the meaning of words is activated automatically –people cannot control the activation of meaning.
v Automaticity
v What about the phonological information of a written word in a silent reading task?
v Is a word’s phonology activated in a task that does not require reading aloud?
