PSY 369: Psycholinguistics

Cognitive Psychology

What is “psycholinguistics”?

Mental Processes- Short Term Memory- Long Term Memory- Encoding- Retrieval- Mental

Representations

Linguistic Theory- Phonology- Morphology- Syntax- Semantics- Rules

Psycho LinguisticsThe study of language from a psychological perspective.

Cognitive Psychology It is the body of psychological experimentation that deals

with issues of human memory, language use, problem solving, decision making, and reasoning.

“Cognitive Psychology refers to all processes by which the sensory input is transformed, reduced, elaborated, stored, recovered, and used.” Ulric Neisser (1967)

Mind as computer analogy

Symbol manipulators

Mind as computer analogy Limitations of the analogy

Minds (Brains??) slow parallel analog trillions of

connections

Computers fast serial (mostly) digital few connections

(relatively)

Other analogies out there: Mind as a brain (Connectionism) Mind as a body (Embodied Cognition)

The ‘standard model’

Information ‘flows’ from one memory buffer to the next

The Multistore Model

The sensory store

George Sperling (1960)

Full Report: I'm going to show you a bunch of letters, then I'll cue you to recall as many of letters as you can.

RECALL

Partial ReportI'm going to show you a bunch of letters, then I'll cue you (with a blue arrow) as to which row of letters I'd like you to recall. Immediately following the cue, write down as many letters as you can from that row.

RECALL

The sensory store

Typically the result of this experiment is: Full report: can report about 4.5 letters on

average Partial report: can typically report 4 letters

(that's100%) The partial report results suggest that all of the

information is there, the 4.5 average seen in the full report condition reflects the extremely rapid decay of the Sensory Store.

The sensory store

Further support of this comes from a delay manipulation.

In this case you manipulate how much time passes between the stimuli and the recall cue.

If you delay by about 1/4 to 1/2 a second, the average reported drops to about 4.5, the same rate as in the Full report task.

The sensory store Properties

sensory specific - one for vision, one for audition, etc.

high capacity extremely fast decay

The ‘standard model’

The Multistore Model

Short term memory I’ll read a list of words and ask you to recall them

Okay, now recall as many of the items as you can

Here is the list: CAT, SHACK, BOAT, CAR, PICTURE, ELEPHANT, MAP,

SWING, TACK, BEAR, BOX, DOOR, CHURCH, TREE, DOG, DENTIST, TRAIN, SNOW, SMOKE, RADIO

Short term memory

The typical results items at the beginning of a list

is remembered well (primacy) items at the end of the list are

remembered well (recency)

Short term memory Typical account:

Recency items recalled from STM Primacy items recalled from LTM

A variant of the task: Count backwards by threes before recall

Here is the list: MOUSE, BARN, SHIP, TRUCK, PHOTOGRAPH, GIRAFFE, SIGN,

SLIDE, PIN, DEER, BOTTLE, WINDOW, GARAGE, BUSH, FISH, DOCTOR, AIRPLANE, RAIN, FIRE, TELEVISION

Short term memory

The typical result is that the longer you have to count backwards, the worse your memory for the letters.

The theory is that the counting backwards prevents the rehearsal of information in STM, so it decays away.

Short term memory Increasing your STM span

Chunking Grouping information together into larger units

Dog cat mouse shoe sock toe couch pillow blanket Down flowers the by with chased yellow several girls a river

boy. A boy chased several girls with yellow flowers down by the

river. Notice that the previous two are the same words, but the syntax

allows for grouping into meaningful ‘chunks’

Short Term Memory Properties

rapid access (about 35 milliseconds per item) limited capacity (7+/- 2 chunks; George Miller, 1956) fast decay, about 12 seconds (longer if rehearsed or

elaborated)

Working Memory Working memory instead of STM

Working Memory Working memory instead of STM

Phonological rehearsal mechanism Phonological store Very limited capacity

Rehearsal maintains information

in the store

Working Memory Working memory instead of STM

Store and manipulate visual and spatial

information Directly from perception Indirectly from imagery

Working Memory Working memory instead of STM

Allocate attentional resources to the

subcomponents Directs elaboration/manipulation of

information

The ‘standard model’

The Multistore Model

Long term memory Properties

Capacity: Unlimited? Duration: Decay/interference, retrieval difficulty Organization

Multiple subsystems for type of memory Associative networks (more on these next week)

Long term memory: Capacity

How much can we remember? Lots, no known limits to how much memory storage we

have.

More important issue concerns questions about encoding and retrieval

Encoding - getting memories into LTM what gets in? Retrieval - getting memories out of LTM what gets out? exact

memories or reconstructed memories?

Long term memory: Duration

How long do our memories last?

Ebbinghaus (1885/1913) He memorized non-sense

syllables. Memorize them until perfect

performance, Test to relearn the lists

perfectly. This was called the

"savings."

Long term memory: Duration

Bahrick (1984) He has done a number of

studies asking people about memories for things (e.g., Spanish, faces of classmates, etc.) that they learned over 50 years past. He has found evidence that at least some memories stick around a really long time.

How long do our memories last?

Long term memory: Organization

This theory suggests that there are different memory components, each storing different kinds of information.

Declarative episodic - memories about

events semantic - knowledge of facts

Procedural - memories about how to do things (e.g., the thing that makes you improve at riding a bike with practice.

The Multiple Memory Stores Theory

Declarative

Procedural

episodic semantic

Long term memory

How is semantic memory structured? Networks (more next week)

Attention Major tool of the central executive

Limited capacity resource

Filtering capabilities

Integration function

Automaticity Controlled processes

Require resources Under some volitional direction Slow, effortful

Automatic processes Require little attention Obligatory Fast

Stages of skill acquisition Stages of skill acquisition

Cognitive stage Establish declarative encoding of an action

Associative stage Strengthen the connections between elements of the skill

Autonomous stage

Skills can be performed without interference form other activities

Bottom-up & Top-down Terms come from computer science

Bottom up (data driven) relies upon evidence that is physically present, building larger units based on smaller ones

Top down (knowledge driven), using higher-level information to support lower-level processes

Bottom-up & Top-down

Selfridge’s Pandemonium system, 1959

Bottom-up & Top-down

C T

Bottom-up & Top-down

T E

Bottom-up & Top-down

T EC T

Bottom-up & Top-down

FROG

Bottom-up & Top-down

FROG

Bottom-up & Top-down

Half the class close your eyes

Title: Doing laundry

Bottom-up & Top-down

Read story

Rate how comprehensible the story is 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5

hard to easy to understand understand

Half the class close your eyes

Summing up Psycholinguistic view

Language and cognition are inextricably linked Notice that almost all of the experiment demonstrations

involved language elements as stimuli