Introduction to Psycholinguistics: Key Concepts and Cognitive Approaches - Prof. Laura Rod | Apuntes de Psicolingüística

UNIT 1: BASIC APPROACH TO PSYCHOLINGUISTICS

1. WH AT IS P SYC HO LIN GU IST IC S?

• The study of psychological processes involved in language.

• Concerned with the skills of developing speaking and listening → Main traditional activities, both human through

which we can communicate and give us clues about the nature of the human mind. Natural processes of communication

through which we communicate, while writing and reading are learnt.

o In speaking we convert ideas, perceptions, feelings and intentions that we want other to process into words.

o In listening, how we or receivers reconstruct those ideas, perceptions and intentions that we are meant to

understand. They reveal how the mind deals with this process.

SP EAK IN G A ND LI ST ENI NG

• Tools used in more global activities, when people talk, they convey facts, ask for favours and other people receive

information; these actions turn into pieces out of which we form conversations, negotiations and other social exchanges

forms through speaking and listening.

• Speaking and listening tell us a lot about social and cultural activities, thanks to the pauses, expressions …

‘Why don’t you go for a walk, it’s a nice day?’ → Another way in which we see that speaking is more complex as it

is not literal, conveys and intention that the other person may or may not decode.

• Why or how people get the intended meaning.

• The second process of interpretation show how some linguistic patterns are preferred over others.

Language tells us a lot of things about how our mind works when using language when speaking, listening but also not so

natural as reading or writing.

• Garrdenpath sentences → For linguists, those are just ambiguous sentences. They show us the way we pack

information, about how we read, depending on the language we do it in a certain way.

PS YCH OL ING UI STI CS TR AD ITI ON AL CO NCE RN S

At first psycholinguistics was based on studies, but from a certain point, that situation changed and linguistics started to be

based on psychology due to a turn of approach.

1. COMPREHENSION

Study of mental processes performed when people listen, understand and remember whatever they hear or read

(decoding).

• It is an active and dynamic process that involves comprehension, understanding of speech, storing and

remembering information.

• Through comprehension we build up an interpretation of the situation according to the linguistic and contextual

features.

• Goal → Understanding, but when we understand we have to analyse context and perform multilevel analysis.

• Multilevel analysis:

• Phonological analysis → Appropriate segmentation of the incoming signals, it has the goal of

recognizing words.

• Morphological identification → Identification of strings of sounds to construct words which are

identified in their features.

• Syntactic analysis → The individual has to analyse phrases and sentences in order to understand the

meaning; he has to give the correct functional interpretation to each constituent.

‘John is eager to please’ vs. ‘John is easy to please’. agent vs. receiver.

• Lexical analysis → Scan the possible meaning of words, to choose the meaning that best fits in the

context of the text being processed.

‘John elapsed for an hour’ vs. ‘John slept for an hour’.

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UNIT 1: BASIC APPROACH TO PSYCHOLINGUISTICS

1. WHAT IS PSYCHOLINGUISTICS?

The study of psychological processes involved in language.
Concerned with the skills of developing speaking and listening → Main traditional activities, both human through which we can communicate and give us clues about the nature of the human mind. Natural processes of communication through which we communicate, while writing and reading are learnt. o In speaking we convert ideas, perceptions, feelings and intentions that we want other to process into words. o In listening , how we or receivers reconstruct those ideas, perceptions and intentions that we are meant to understand. They reveal how the mind deals with this process. SPEAKING AND LISTENING
Tools used in more global activities, when people talk , they convey facts, ask for favours and other people receive information; these actions turn into pieces out of which we form conversations , negotiations and other social exchanges forms through speaking and listening.
Speaking and listening tell us a lot about social and cultural activities , thanks to the pauses, expressions … ‘Why don’t you go for a walk, it’s a nice day?’ → Another way in which we see that speaking is more complex as it is not literal, conveys and intention that the other person may or may not decode.
Why or how people get the intended meaning.
The second process of interpretation show how some linguistic patterns are preferred over others. Language tells us a lot of things about how our mind works when using language when speaking, listening but also not so natural as reading or writing.
- Garrdenpath sentences → For linguists, those are just ambiguous sentences. They show us the way we pack information, about how we read, depending on the language we do it in a certain way. PSYCHOLINGUISTICS TRADITIONAL CONCERNS At first psycholinguistics was based on studies, but from a certain point, that situation changed and linguistics started to be based on psychology due to a turn of approach. 1. COMPREHENSION Study of mental processes performed when people listen, understand and remember whatever they hear or read (decoding).
  - It is an active and dynamic process that involves comprehension, understanding of speech, storing and remembering information.
  - Through comprehension we build up an interpretation of the situation according to the linguistic and contextual features.
  - Goal → Understanding, but when we understand we have to analyse context and perform multilevel analysis.
  - Multilevel analysis:
    - Phonological analysis → Appropriate segmentation of the incoming signals, it has the goal of recognizing words.
    - Morphological identification → Identification of strings of sounds to construct words which are identified in their features.
    - Syntactic analysis → The individual has to analyse phrases and sentences in order to understand the meaning; he has to give the correct functional interpretation to each constituent. ‘John is eager to please’ vs. ‘John is easy to please’. agent vs. receiver.
    - Lexical analysis → Scan the possible meaning of words, to choose the meaning that best fits in the context of the text being processed. ‘John elapsed for an hour’ vs. ‘John slept for an hour’.

Semantic-syntactic analysis → To assign the appropriate semantic case role to the participant, and the events represented in the sentence. ‘The key opened the door’ the key is the instrument vs. ‘ The boy opened the door’ the boy is the agent vs. ‘ The door opened’ the door is the patient acted upon.
Pragmatic analysis → To go beyond propositional information to understand the intended meaning. ‘Have you got time?’ – Yes, I have. vs_. Yes, it’s eight o’clock._ 2. PRODUCTION The mental processes people develop to come to say what they say or write. Sub-processes → Encoding.
Propositional or ideational meanings → Reconstruction from decodification of incoming signal.
Communicative purpose → The intended purpose of the speech act.
In large communicative act or long discourse, we need to: o Unfold the thematic structure , fitting the contribution in and at the appropriate point to maintain the coherence of the communicative act. o Encode the message within grammatical structure. 3. ACQUISITION Development and maturation of complex activities while acquisition of first language.
Acquisition and development of comprehension and production processes.
Achievement of language competence while learning first language. o Competence → The general set of abilities shared by native speakers of a language.

THE COGNITIVE APPROACH Psycholinguistics is the study of the relationship between language and thought , with this approach psycholinguistic has become not only a branch of psychology but part of Cognitive psychology.

Cognitive psychology studies : o Perception. o Attention. o Learning. o Memory. o Concept formation. o Reasoning. o Judgment and decision – making. o Problem – solving. o Language processing. o Social and cultural factors. o Emotions. o Consciousness. o Animal cognition. o Evolutionary issues
The cognitive approach implies that Psycholinguistics is concerned with cognitive processes involved in using and acquiring language.
It is related to areas of cognitive psychology → It deals with the scientific investigation of human cognition, that is, all our mental abilities: perceiving, learning, remembering, thinking, reasoning and understanding. THE COGNITIVE APPROACH TO THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LANGUAGE The cognitive approach to the psychology of language includes heories and approaches from Cognitive psychology but applied to language use and acquisition. Therefore, the cognitive approach has broadened the scope of traditional psycholinguistics.
Psycholinguistics → Psychology of language.
Cognitive psychology and cognitive psycholinguistics → Both conduct research relating brain functions and mental processes relations, it also deals with the information and language function processing.
Learning → A long-term change in mental representations or associations as a result of experience (Ormrod 2009 : 4). Concerning how we have to deal with cognition in order to distinguish between long and short term changes, as well as mental representations and how they work and are ordered.

▪ Memory workings. ▪ Attention. ▪ Automatization. ▪ Individual differences in cognitive abilities and learning styles. SUBFIELDS OF COGNITIVE LINGUISTICS AND PSYCHOLINGUISTICS

Cognitive linguistics → General approach to linguistics o To explain processes of language use. o To apply those processes. o To understand changes in language use.
Cognitive psycholinguistics : o Language processing. o language acquisition. o Language learning. o Language function in people with impaired language or intellectual abilities.

PSYCHOLOGY OF LANGUAGE; IMPORTANT POINTS FOR LINGUISTIS There are some themes in the psychology of language:

Processes: o Top/down/theory-driven. o Button-up/data-driven.
Independent/interrelationship between or among language processes.
Brain damage effects on language +
What is innate in language.
Explicit rules of language processing.
Accuracy of experimental techniques. The psychology of language has two main sides: Theoretical side Practical side Theories and models to explain language in terms of processes.
Processes to be applied language comprehension, production, acquisition and learning. Application of those models and theories to specific fields:
Bilingualism.
Writing.
Second language acquisition and learning.
Teaching second languages. THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LANGUAGE IMPORTANT POINTS FOR LINGUISTIC:
A sentence is not a simple chain of words.
Words in a sentence are interrelated and represent mental configurations.
A sentence is simultaneous structure.
The meaning of a sentence is an idea.
Words in their meaning are interrelated.
Interrelations build up mental configurations.
Meaning is built from knowledge.
Knowledge of the word, how knowledge is stored and retrieved.
Access and activation of domains of knowledge that we need when planning an utterance to convey some kind of information. This implies: o Memory system. o The relation of memory system workings in processes of:

▪ Learning. ▪ Production. ▪ Comprehension (how our cognitive system works when learning)

DATA IN PSYCHOLOGY OF LANGUAGE 1. Cognitive linguistics goal → Mental representations / cognitive conceptualizations , what we want to know is how they are organized and how they are active during language production, comprehension and language. 2. Psychology of language goa l → Related to conceptualization but in a different way, more related to the mental / cognitive processes ; how individuals process language while speaking. METHODOLOGIES OF COLLECTING DATA Analysing data through introspection may not be a good method when dealing with mental processes, since it can easily lead to bias. There are three main practical approaches to deal with data: 1. Observational method → May be based on the observation of different phenomena under controlled conditions (test, practices).Based on the observation of features: - Slips of the tongue (you say something automatically which don’t match with what you wanted to say). - Slips of the pen (the same as slips of the tongue but when write/text). 2. Experimental method → You may use different possible tools, typically uses tests and practices, to obtain results, which can be qualitative or quantitative. - Descriptions of objects / visual input. - Identification and time reaction measures. - Pathologies of language. - Computer simulations. 3. Self – report method → Subject describes a linguistic process as they experience it during or afterwards. Result types (create a chart), implies that the experiment has to be prepared either qualitative or quantitative: 1. Qualitative - Purpose: Answer ‘Why?’ question. - Data type : Observation, symbol, word etc. - Approach: Observe and interpret. - Analysis: Grouping of common data / non-statistical analysis. 2. Quantitative - Purpose: Answer ‘how much / many?’. - Data type: Number / statistical result. - Approach: Measure and test. - Analysis: Statistical analysis. PROCEDURE
- Theory driven → Attempts to provide evidence to prove a theory, performing experiments to prove that theory is psychologically real. The most productive one.
- Data driven → Examines evidence and builds a theory upon them, without a previous specific point to be proved.

Introduction to Psycholinguistics: Key Concepts and Cognitive Approaches - Prof. Laura Rod, Apuntes de Psicolingüística

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UNIT 1: BASIC APPROACH TO PSYCHOLINGUISTICS

1. WHAT IS PSYCHOLINGUISTICS?