PSY 369: Psycholinguistics Language Comprehension: Discourse

PSY 369: Psycholinguistics

Language Comprehension:Discourse

Characteristics of Discourse Global Structure (macrostructure):

Jill bought a new sweater. Sweater 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


Jill bought a new sweater. Sweater 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.

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

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

Effects of world knowledge Bartlett (1932)

Schema a whole package of information used to facilitate

comprehension of discourse

Read native American folk tale Participants’ memories changed to fit their

existing beliefs Added new details Changed details Deleted details

Effects of world knowledge Scripts

Generic story of situations

Go inside

Go to table

Sit down

Scene 1: Enter Scene 2: Order

Get menu

Read menu

Choose food

Give order

Scene 3: Eat

Get food

Eat food

Scene 4: Pay

Ask for check

Received check

Tip waiter

Pay check

Exit

Restaurant Script

Effects of world knowledge What happened to semantic networks?

One explanation Some representations get so strongly

associated that they get activated as an entire unit

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.

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

Characteristics of Discourse

Test to see if structure effects whether inferences are made

How does “Betty really wanted to give her mother a present” connect up with other statements in the story?




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.


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.

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 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 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.

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

Discourse in memory Kintsch’s model

The Construction-Integration Model Discourse occurs in a series of cycles

As each sentence comes in it gets integrated into the discourse

In each cycle Construction phase - activate relevant concepts Integration phase - keep only the most relevant elaborations

Multiple levels of representation formed Surface form, textbase, situation model

Discourse in memory Kintsch and colleagues (1990)

Jack scanned the newspaper.Jack looked through the newspaper.Jack looked through the movie ads.Jack looked over some editorials.

It was Friday night and Jack and Melissa were bored, so they decided to catch a movie. Jack scanned the newspaper. He saw that they could just make the nine o’clock showing of the hot new romantic comedy. Off they went.

Did this sentence occur in the paragraph?Read before


Jack scanned the newspaper.

Jack scanned the newspaper

S

N VP

NPV

Surface form


S

N VP

NPV

Surface form



Textbase

Examine

Jack Newspaper


S

N VP

NPV

Surface form



Textbase

Examine

Jack Newspaper

Situational Model





Evidence for surface form

Similar meaning

If Better memory here





Evidence for Strong textbase

If Better memory hereAdds inference

Infers which section did he scan.

Discourse in memory Kintch and colleagues (1990)



Did this sentence occur in the paragraph?

Evidence for Strong situation model

inconsistent

If Better memory here

consistent

Consistent with situation model.

Discourse in memory Kintch and colleagues (1990)

-0.2

0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1

1.2

0 min 40 min 2 days 4 days

Delay

Trace strength

SituationalmodelTextbase

Surface form

Summary Discourse processing is both complex and

flexible Multiple representations Processing depends on context

Documents

PSY 369: Psycholinguistics Language Comprehension: Discourse