PSY 369: Psycholinguistics

PSY 369: Psycholinguistics

Language Comprehension:Compositional meaning

Embodiment in language Embodied Representations

Much of this work argues that language is embodied (e.g., Barsalou, 2008; Glenberg, 2008; Zwaan & Taylor, 2006)Perceptual and motor systems play a central role in language production and comprehension (and meaning/concepts) Words and sentences are usually grounded to perceptual,

motoric, and emotional experiences. In absence of immediate sensory-motor referents, words and

sentences refer to mental models or simulations of experience

Embodiment in language Embodied Representations

Simulation hypothesis (Gallese, 2008) Simulation exploits some of the same neural structures activated

during performance, perception, imagining, memory… Language gives us enough information to simulate Processing (producing or comprehending) walk involves the

use of representations involved in the act of walking

producing or comprehending

“walk”

Embodiment in language Evidence for Embodied Representations

Stanfied & Zwaan (2001) Presented participants with sentences

John put the pencil in the cup.John put the pencil in the drawer

Results: faster at saying horizontal pencil with drawer and vertical pencil with cup

See a picture and ask “does this describe what you read about?”


Zwaan et al (2004) Presented participants with a sentence

A: The pitcher hurled the softball at you.B: You hurled the softball at the pitcher.

Results: faster at saying ‘Yes’ when sentence matched the pictures (e.g., sentence A and pictures in A, if the ball is small and then gets big, it is coming towards you)

See two pictures and ask “are these pictures the same object”

A B


Hauk et al (2004) Do action words activate the motor cortex? fMRI study

50 words from 3 semantic subcategories(words matched for freq, length, imageability, etc.)Rated for whether words reminded them of face, arm, or leg

Movement Comparison: moved their foot, finger, or tongue


Hauk et al (2004) Do action words activate the motor cortex? fMRI study

Action words did activate some of the same areas as the movements

Summing up Traditional

Cognition = Computation

Representation by propositions

Propositions are abstract relations

Embodiment of Meaning Cognition is serving perception

and actions Representation = Patterns of

possible bodily interactions with the world (lawfully related to the world)

What an object, event, sentence means for you, is what you can do with the object, event, sentence.

Meaning beyond the word Move to compositional semantics

Not all meaning resides at the level of the individual words.

Conceptual combinations Meaning of Sentences Meaning across multiple sentences (texts & discourse)

Discourse Psycholinguistics Traditional Psycholinguistics

Determining what happens when we understand sentences Broader View

How we resolve/understand sentences against the current discourse representation

Sentence comprehension is a process that anchors the interpretation of the sentence to the representation of the prior text

Processing Discourse What is discourse?

The ways that we process (i.e., comprehend and remember) units of language larger than a sentence

Lectures, personal narratives, expository discourse Units of analysis larger than a sentence

Applies to both spoken and written forms

Discourse processing is sort of like syntactic processing – a way of organizing/connecting the different pieces in to larger chunks. Here the chunks are larger than sentences.

Bill and Ted traveled through time and space. Bill asked, “Dude, did you find him?” “Yeah, Bach was in the music store, but I haven’t found Abe

yet. Dude, you should hear him play, he rocks!”“Excellent! Man, we’ve got to get these dudes back to school before we get there.”

To whom does “him” refer?



To whom does “him” refer? Bach



To whom does this “him” refer?



To whom does this “him” refer? Bach again



To whom does this “him” refer? Bach again



Why not Abe?

Huh!?



Huh!?



Oh yeah, they’re time travelers.

Characteristics of Discourse Local Structure (microstructure):

The relationship between individual sentences Cohesion Coherence

Global Structure (macrostructure): The relationship between the sentences and our

knowledge of the world


The relationship between individual sentences Cohesion Coherence



Local Structure (microstructure): The relationship between individual sentences

Cohesion• Does the discourse “stick together”?• Interpretation of one sentence depends on other sentences?

Coherence• Does the passage make sense?• Logical consistency and semantic continuity?

Characteristics of Discourse

Characteristics of Discourse Cohesion: Interpretation of one sentence

depends on other sentences Referential Cohesion

“Dude, you should hear him play…” Substitution Cohesion

“We’ve got to get these dudes back to …” And many more

Ellipsis, conjunction, lexical cohesion (See pg 362 of textbook for examples)

The relationship between the referring expression and the antecedent create referential cohesion of discourse

Types of Referential Cohesion Anaphoric Reference

Using an expression to refer back to something previously mentioned in discourse

“…Bach was in the music store …”“Dude, you should hear him play, he rocks.”

Cataphoric Reference Using an expression to refer forward to something that is

coming up in discourseDude, did you find him?” “Yeah, Bach was in the music store...”

Comprehending Anaphoric References

Daneman and Carpenter (1980)

Sitting with Richie, Archie, Walter and the rest of my gang in the Grill yesterday, I began to feel uneasy. Robbie had put a dime in the juke box. It was blaring one of the latest “Rock and Roll” favorites. I was studying, in horror, the reactions of my friends to the music. I was especially perturbed by the expression on my best friend’s face. Wayne looked intense and was pounding the table furiously to the beat. Now, I like most of the things other teenage boys like. I like girls with soft blonde hair, girls with dark curly hair, in fact all girls. I like milkshakes, football games and beach parties. I like denim jeans, fancy T-shirts and sneakers. It is not that I dislike rock music but I think it is supposed to be fun and not taken too seriously. And here he was, “all shook up” and serious over the crazy music.

Task: Reading a passage and answer questions about the referents of pronouns

Question: Who was “all shook up” and serious over the music?






Reading Span Test Smaller reading spans = smaller working memory capacity

Manipulated how many sentences intervened between the pronoun ‘he’ and the antecedent ‘Wayne’






Results


Daneman and Carpenter (1980) Conclusions: The number of intervening sentences don’t

matter for high span people, but does for low span

Measured where/what participants looked at while listening to the sentence.

Compared two types of cues: Gender Accessibility (first mentioned things

highly accessible) Results

Both Gender and accessibility were used to resolve the referential ambiguity


Arnold, Eisenband, Brown-Schmidt, and Trueswell (2000)

“Donald is bringing some mail to Mickey (or Minnie) while a violent storm is beginning. He’s (or She’s) carrying an umbrella, and it looks like they’re both going to need it.”

Local Structure (microstructure): The relationship between individual sentences

Cohesion• Does the discourse “stick together”?• Interpretation of one sentence depends on other sentences?

Coherence• Does the passage make sense?• Logical consistency and semantic continuity?


Characteristics of Discourse Coherence:

Given/new distinction Readers expect speakers to provide cues as to what

information is old (already known by the listener) and what is new (not known)

Making Inferences Filling in missing pieces of information to maintain

coherence

• Haviland and Clark (1974)• Singer, Halldorson, Lear, & Andrusiak (1992)

Developing coherenceHaviland and Clark (1974)

Process of understanding a sentence in discourse context involves 3 stages:

1. Identify the given and new info in the current sentence2. Find an antecedent in memory for the given

information3. Attach the new information to this spot in memory


We got some beer out of the trunk. The beer was warm.

Task: Press a button when you understand the sentence.



Definite article “The” signals that “The beer” is given information




Definite article “The” signals that “The beer” is given informationConnect the new information “was warm” to the appropriate

discourse concept “some beer”

This process is called Direct Matching




We checked the picnic supplies. The beer was warm.


discourse concept “??”

World knowledge





discourse concept “picnic supplies”

Need a bridging inference to connect “the warm beer” to “picnic supplies”

World knowledge

Direct Matching

Bridging Inference

Developing coherence

Typical results

Comprehended faster

Takes more time



Haviland and Clark (1974)

World knowledge

Task: Press a button when you understand the sentence. Conclusion: If you don’t know the old information and need to

make an inference, this may slow down comprehension.

“Murray poured water on the fire.”“The fire went out.”

Singer, Halldorson, Lear, & Andrusiak (1992)

“Murray drank a glass of water.”“The fire went out.”

T/F “water extinguishes fire”

T/F “Does water extinguish fire?”

Causal conditionRequires

bridging inference

Temporal conditionNo required

inference

Developing coherence

Results

Task: Press a button when you understand the sentence, if given a question, answer Yes or No.

Conclusions: Suggests that the bridging inference was made More time consuming to make coherence of temporal than causal

relations

Faster reading time

Faster “T”

Brief summary Local Structure (microstructure):

Discourse is coherent if its elements are easily related. Coherence is achieved with cohesive ties between

sentences. Comprehension is impeded when

There are no antecedents, forcing a bridging inference

The antecedent was not recent, forcing a reinstatement of the antecedent.


The relationship between individual sentences Coherence Cohesion



Characteristics of Discourse Global Structure (macrostructure):

Jill bought a new sweater. Sweaters are sometimes made of wool. Wool production gives some farmers a good livelihood. Farming is a high-risk business. On the news last night, I saw a group of business executives discussing recent trends in the stock market.

The relationship between the sentences and our knowledge of the world

Okay local structure, but each sentence isn’t relevant to an overall topic of discourse


Schemas (Scripts) General knowledge structures for common social

situations Genres

Narrative structure Story grammars - extension of idea of grammatical

rules, specify the organization of a story Expository structure

Different structures


Schemas (Scripts) General knowledge structures for common social

situations Genres

Narrative structure Story grammars - extension of idea of grammatical

rules, specify the organization of a story Expository structure

Different structures

Effects of world knowledge If the balloons popped, the sound would not be able to

carry since everything would be too far away from the correct floor. A closed window would also prevent the sound from carrying since most buildings tend to be well insulated. Since the whole operation depends on a steady flow of electricity, a break in the middle of the wire would also cause problems. Of course the fellow could shout, but the human voice is not loud enough to carry that far. An additional problem is that a string could break on the instrument. Then there could be no accompaniment to the message. It is clear that the best situation would involve less distance. Then there would be fewer potential problems. With face to face contact, the least number of things could go wrong.

Bransford & Johnson (1972)

Effects of world knowledge

Rocky slowly got up from the mat, planning his escape. He hesitated a moment and thought. Things were not going well. What bothered him most was being held, especially since the charges against him had been weak. He considered his present situation. The lock that held him was strong but he thought he could break it. He knew, however, that his timing would have to be perfect.

Prison escape OR Wrestling match

Anderson et al (1977)

Effects of world knowledge Schemas (Scripts)

Mental structures of how the world works, acquired through experience

A whole package of information about what we know about the world and events

Generic story of situations A framework with causal information

Used to facilitate comprehension of discourse, as well as to guide recall (and reconstruction)

Effects of world knowledge Schemas (Scripts)

Generic story of situations

Go insideGo to tableSit down

Scene 1: Enter Scene 2: Order

Get menuRead menuChoose foodGive order

Scene 3: Eat

Get foodEat food

Scene 4: Pay

Ask for checkReceived checkTip waiterPay checkExit

Restaurant Script

Effects of world knowledgeBartlett (1932)

Task: Read native American folk tale Write down everything that you can remember

from that story that I read earlier Bartlett had them recall after a longer periods of

time (between 15 mins. Up to 10 years later)

Effects of world knowledgeBartlett (1932)

Conclusions: We use our Schema to facilitate comprehension of discourse, as well as to guide recall (and reconstruction)

Results: Participants’ memories changed to fit their

existing beliefs (reconstructive memories) Added new details Changed details Deleted details

Effects of world knowledgeInvernizzi & Abouzeid (1995)

Read two European tales (cry wolf & stone soup) 2 audiences

European North American children Ponam children (New Guinea)


Retelling of boy who cried wolf Ponam children (New Guinea)

Once upon a time Kalai and his family they lived on an island. Kalai’s mother always carried him everywhere. One day Kalai’s mother and father went out fishing. Kalai’s mother said, “Kalai, you are too small to go out fishing in the sea. You should stay home with your grandfather.” Kalai was lonely on the beach. Kalai said, “How could I get my family home?” He sat down and decided to get his family home. He got his red laplap and ran down to the beach and waved his laplap to his family and said, “Fire, fire.” His brother saw his laplap and went home. When they arrived they saw nothing.


Retelling of boy who cried wolf European North American children

Kalai was running up and down the beach yelling “Fire, fire.” Everybody came home. The next day the same thing happened. They came home. The next day came, but the house caught on fire. He ran up and down the beach, but nobody came. Kalai kept waving the flag. Nobody came. Suddenly they saw the flames and the smoke and they came, but it was too late. Everything had burnt down to the ground, and his brother told him if he kept telling lies that nobody will come when you call for help.


Impact of different schemata European North American children

Setting, precipitating events, goal reaching aspects, story resolutions

Ponam children (New Guinea) Recalled factual detail about settings, events, and

outcomes, but leaving out things like consequence, resolution, moral (generally seemed to miss the point)

Conclusions: We use our cultural schemas to facilitate comprehension of discourse, as well as to guide recall

Effects of world knowledge

Smith and Swinney (1992) Task: presented stories (like the “balloons” one)

Collected sentence by sentence reading times Had them recall the sentences Some people were given a title for the story, others not

When do we use the schema? During comprehension or recall?

Results: Overall, reading times were faster with a title that without Stories with titles: More words were recalled and more

“intrusions” (details consistent with the schema but not in the story)

Conclusions: Schemas are used in both on-line comprehension and recall

Effects of world knowledge Summary

We use schemas to Facilitate the comprehension of discourse To guide recall (and reconstruction)

Effects of Genre Not all kinds of discourse follow the same

structure Different effects, purposes, etc.

Expository discourse Convey info about a subject (e.g., textbook, lecture)

Narrative discourse Tell a story: Introduce characters & settings, establish

a goal, etc. APA style Newspaper articles

Expository Structure Reading texts, listening to lectures, etc.

Organized with different relationships (but can still draw a tree structure)

Relationships Collection - ideas or events related on the basis of some commonality Causation - ideas are joined causally so that one idea is identified as

the antecedent and another as the consequence Response - ideas are joined in a problem/solution or question/answer

relationship Comparison - ideas are related by pointing out similarities and

differences Description - general ideas are explained by giving attributes or other

specific details

Narrative structure

Once there was a woman. She saw a tiger’s cave. She wanted a tiger’s whisker. She put food in front of the cave. The tiger came out. She pulled out a whisker.

The story has a structure, a story grammar

Narrative structure Story grammar - can depict with a tree structure

Story

Setting Episode

Event Reaction

Goal Overt Response

Action Consequence

Event Event

Once there was a woman.

She saw a tiger’s cave.

She wanted a tiger’s whisker.

She put food in front of the cave.

The tiger came out. She pulled out a whisker.

Narrative structureThorndyke (1977) Level effect Read more

slowly but are better remembered.

She wanted a tiger’s whisker.

The tiger came out.

High hierarchy statements Lower in the hierarchy.

Comprehensibility and recall were tied to inherent plot structure, independent of passage content


Test to see if structure effects whether inferences are made

Task: Think aloud task Read through the story aloud (one sentence at a time) and

talk aloud about their understanding of that sentence

Trabasso & Suh (1993)

Trabasso & Suh (1993)Sequential version

Once there was a girl named Betty.One day, Betty found that her mother’s birthday was coming soon.Betty really wanted to give her mother a present.Betty went to the department store.

Betty found a pretty purse.Betty bought the purse.Her mother was very happy.

Several days later, Betty saw her friend knitting.Betty was good at knitting.Betty decided to knit a sweater.Betty selected a pattern from a magazine.Betty followed the instructions in the article.Finally, Betty finished a beautiful sweater.Betty pressed the sweater.Betty folded the sweater carefully.

Betty put it in the closet for the next time she was going out.Berry was very happy.

Betty found that everything was too expensive.Betty could not buy anything.Betty felt sorry.

Betty gave the sweater to her mother.Her mother was excited when she saw the present.

Hierarchical version

How does this sentence connect up with the rest of the story?

Trabasso & Suh (1993)Hierarchical version

Betty was good at knitting.Betty decided to knit a sweater.Betty selected a pattern from a magazine.Betty followed the instructions in the article.Finally, Betty finished a beautiful sweater.Betty pressed the sweater.Betty folded the sweater carefully.Betty gave the sweater to her mother.Her mother was excited when she saw the

present.

SGAAOAAOR

SE

GAOORE

S = SettingE = EventR = ReactionG = GoalO = Overt ResponseA = Action

Once there was a girl named Betty.One day, Betty found that her mother’s birthday

was coming soon.Betty really wanted to give her mother a present.Betty went to the department store.Betty found that everything was too expensive.Betty could not buy anything.Betty felt sorry.Several days later, Betty saw her friend knitting.



was coming soon.Betty really wanted to give her mother a present.Betty went to the department store.Betty found that everything was too expensive.Betty could not buy anything.Betty felt sorry.Several days later, Betty saw her friend knitting.

Hierarchical versionBetty was good at knitting.Betty decided to knit a sweater.Betty selected a pattern from a magazine.Betty followed the instructions in the article.Finally, Betty finished a beautiful sweater.Betty pressed the sweater.Betty folded the sweater carefully.Betty gave the sweater to her mother.Her mother was excited when she saw the

present.

S E G A O O R

E

SGAAOAAOR

S G A A O

A A O R

SE

GAOORE

Is a superordinate goal that motivates the subgoal of the next episode



was coming soon.Betty really wanted to give her mother a present.Betty went to the department store.Betty found a pretty purse.Betty bought the purse.Her mother was very happy.Several days later, Betty saw her friend knitting.

Sequential versionBetty was good at knitting.Betty decided to knit a sweater.Betty selected a pattern from a magazine.Betty followed the instructions in the article.Finally, Betty finished a beautiful sweater.Betty pressed the sweater.Betty folded the sweater carefully.Betty put it in the closet for the next time she

was going out.Berry was very happy.

SGAAOAAO

R

SE

GAOORE

S E G A O O R

E S G A A O A A O

The goal is already filled, so not related to the subgoal of the next episode


Results

In a think aloud task participants mentioned the superordinate

goal in the hierarchical condition but not the sequential condition

Story grammar structure matters Strongly support the hypothesis that readers do make

global causal connections during reading.

Discourse in memory Daily Summary:

Schemas are used to structure comprehension and memory

Discourses have internal structures that impact comprehension and memory

Weekly summary: Evidence supports the psychological reality of a number of

different representations Propositions & propositional networks Embodied representations Inferences Schemata and scripts Situation models

Documents

PSY 369: Psycholinguistics