PSY 369 Psycholinguistics Cognitive Psychology Day 2 What

PSY 369: Psycholinguistics Cognitive Psychology Day 2

What is “psycholinguistics”? The study of language from a psychological perspective. Psycho Linguistics Mental Processes Linguistic Theory - Short Term Memory Long Term Memory Encoding Retrieval Mental Representations - Phonology - Morphology - Syntax - Semantics - Rules

The ‘standard model’ The Multistore Model

Long term memory n Properties n n n Capacity: Unlimited? Duration: Decay/interference, retrieval difficulty Organization n n Multiple subsystems for type of memory Associative networks (more on these next week)

Long term memory: Capacity n How much can we remember? n n Lots, no known limits to how much memory storage we have. More important issue concerns questions about encoding and retrieval n Encoding - getting memories into LTM what gets in? n n n Rehearsal Depth of processing – organization, distinctiveness, effort, elaboration Retrieval - getting memories out of LTM what gets out? exact memories or reconstructed memories?

Long term memory: Duration n n How long do our memories last? Ebbinghaus (1885/1913) n n n He memorized non-sense syllables. Memorize them until perfect performance, Test to relearn the lists perfectly. n This was called the "savings. "

Long term memory: Duration n n How long do our memories last? Bahrick (1984) n 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.

Long term memory: Organization n n This theory suggests that there are different memory components, each storing different kinds of information. Declarative n n n The Multiple Memory Stores Theory Declarative n 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. Procedural n semantic

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

Attention n Major tool of the central executive n Limited capacity resource n Filtering capabilities n Integration function

Attention: Limited resource n Only have so much ‘energy’ to make things go, so need to divide it and allocate it to processes n Single pool (e. g. , Kahneman, 1973) n n Multiple pools (e. g. , Navon & Gopher, 1979) n n Central bank of resources available to all tasks that need it Several banks of specialized resources – divided up in terms of input/output modalities, stages of info processing (perception, memory, response output) Dual task experiments

Attention: An information filter n Information bottleneck. There is so much info, only some is let through, while the rest is filtered out n n Early selection (e. g. , Broadbent, 1958, Triesman, 1964) Late filters (Deutsch & Deutsch) n n Everything gets in, bottleneck comes at response level (can only respond to limited number of things) Cocktail party effect, dichotic listening

Attention: Integration n Attention is used to ‘glue’ features together n Feature integration theory & Visual search exps Where’s Waldo Find the X X X O X X XX Pop out X O OO XO XO O XX Slow search

Attention: How do we control it? n n Attention as a ‘spotlight’ Move it around

Attention: How do we control it? n n Attention as a ‘spotlight’ Move it around, make it focused or diffuse

Attention: How do we control it? n n n Attention as a ‘spotlight’ Move it around, make it focused or diffuse Is it ‘aimed’ or ‘pulled’

Automaticity n Controlled processes n n Require resources Under some volitional direction Slow, effortful Automatic processes n n n Require little attention Obligatory Fast

Stages of skill acquisition n Cognitive stage n n Associative stage n n Establish declarative encoding of an action Strengthen the connections between elements of the skill Autonomous stage n Skills can be performed without interference form other activities

Bottom-up & Top-down n Terms come from computer science n n 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 E C 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 Half the class close your eyes Read story Rate how comprehensible the story is 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 hard to understand easy to understand

Summing up n Psycholinguistic view n Language and cognition are inextricably linked n Notice that almost all of the experiment demonstrations involved language elements as stimuli