PYC3703 – COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY
CHAPTER 11: LANGUAGE
Key Terms Explanation Pg.
Anaphoric inference Inferences that connect an object or person in 346
one sentence to an object or person in another
sentence
Balanced dominance When a word has more than one meaning but 332
the meanings have about the same dominance
Biased dominance When words have 2 or more meanings with 332
different dominances
Broca’s aphasia Patients with the problem of having slow, 335
laboured, ungrammatical speech caused by
damage to the frontal lobe
Causal inference Inferences that the events described in one 346
clause or sentence were caused by events
that occurred in a previous sentence
Coherence The representation of the text in a person’s 346
mind so that info in one part of the text is
related to info in another part of the text
Common ground The speakers’ mutual knowledge, beliefs and 352
assumptions
Corpus 329
Garden path sentence Sentences which begin appearing to mean 338
one thing but end up meaning something else
Given-new contract States that a speaker should construct 351
sentences so that they include given info
(listener already knows) and new info
Inference Determining what the text means by using our 345
knowledge to go beyond the info provided by
the text
Instrument inference Inferences about tools or methods 346
Interactionist approach to The idea that info provided by both syntax and 339
parsing semantics is taken into account simultaneously
as we read or listen to a sentence
Language A system of communication using sounds or 323
symbols that enable us to express our
feelings, thoughts, ideas and experiences
Late closure States that when a person encounters a new 338
word, the person’s parsing mechanism
assumes that this word is part of the current
phrase, so each now word is added to the
current phrase for as long as this is possible
Lexical ambiguity The existence of multiple word meanings 332
Lexical decision task Involves reading a list that consists of words 331
and non-words
Lexicon A person’s knowledge of what words mean, 326
how they sound and how they are used in
, relation to other words
Meaning dominance The fact that some meanings of words occur 332
more frequently than others
Morpheme Smallest units of language that have a 327
definable meaning or a grammatical function
Parsing Grouping of words into phrases 337
Central process for determining the meaning
of a sentence
Phoneme The shortest segment of speech that, if 326
changed, changes the meaning of a word
Phonemic restoration Occurs when phonemes are perceived in 327
effect speech when the sound of the phoneme is
covered up by an extraneous noise
Psycholinguistics The field concerned with the psychological 325
study of language
Sapir-Whorf hypothesis The nature of a culture’s language can affect 356
the way people think
Semantics The meanings of words and sentences 334
Situation model A mental representation of what a text is about 347
Speech segmentation Our ability to perceive individual words even 328
though there are often no pauses between
words in the sound signal
Syntactic coordination The process by which people use similar 353
grammatical constructions
Syntactic priming Hearing a statement with a particular syntactic 354
construction increases the chances that a
return sentence will be produced with the
same construction
Syntax Specifies the rules for combining words into 335
sentences
Syntax-first approach to States that as people read a sentence, their 338
parsing grouping of words into phrases is initially and
exclusively governed by a number of rules that
are based on syntax, while other info, like
lexical or pragmatic info, exert their influence
at a later stage
Temporary ambiguity Garden path sentences 338
Visual world paradigm Involves determining how participants process 340
info as they are observing a visual scene
Wernicke’s aphasia Patients who had damage to their temporal 336
lobe and produced speech that was fluent and
grammatically correct but tended to be
incoherent
Word frequency The frequency in which a word appears in a 330
language
Word frequency effect Refers to the fact that we respond more rapidly 330
to high-frequency words than to low-frequency
words
Word superiority effect Refers to the finding that letters are easier to 329
CHAPTER 11: LANGUAGE
Key Terms Explanation Pg.
Anaphoric inference Inferences that connect an object or person in 346
one sentence to an object or person in another
sentence
Balanced dominance When a word has more than one meaning but 332
the meanings have about the same dominance
Biased dominance When words have 2 or more meanings with 332
different dominances
Broca’s aphasia Patients with the problem of having slow, 335
laboured, ungrammatical speech caused by
damage to the frontal lobe
Causal inference Inferences that the events described in one 346
clause or sentence were caused by events
that occurred in a previous sentence
Coherence The representation of the text in a person’s 346
mind so that info in one part of the text is
related to info in another part of the text
Common ground The speakers’ mutual knowledge, beliefs and 352
assumptions
Corpus 329
Garden path sentence Sentences which begin appearing to mean 338
one thing but end up meaning something else
Given-new contract States that a speaker should construct 351
sentences so that they include given info
(listener already knows) and new info
Inference Determining what the text means by using our 345
knowledge to go beyond the info provided by
the text
Instrument inference Inferences about tools or methods 346
Interactionist approach to The idea that info provided by both syntax and 339
parsing semantics is taken into account simultaneously
as we read or listen to a sentence
Language A system of communication using sounds or 323
symbols that enable us to express our
feelings, thoughts, ideas and experiences
Late closure States that when a person encounters a new 338
word, the person’s parsing mechanism
assumes that this word is part of the current
phrase, so each now word is added to the
current phrase for as long as this is possible
Lexical ambiguity The existence of multiple word meanings 332
Lexical decision task Involves reading a list that consists of words 331
and non-words
Lexicon A person’s knowledge of what words mean, 326
how they sound and how they are used in
, relation to other words
Meaning dominance The fact that some meanings of words occur 332
more frequently than others
Morpheme Smallest units of language that have a 327
definable meaning or a grammatical function
Parsing Grouping of words into phrases 337
Central process for determining the meaning
of a sentence
Phoneme The shortest segment of speech that, if 326
changed, changes the meaning of a word
Phonemic restoration Occurs when phonemes are perceived in 327
effect speech when the sound of the phoneme is
covered up by an extraneous noise
Psycholinguistics The field concerned with the psychological 325
study of language
Sapir-Whorf hypothesis The nature of a culture’s language can affect 356
the way people think
Semantics The meanings of words and sentences 334
Situation model A mental representation of what a text is about 347
Speech segmentation Our ability to perceive individual words even 328
though there are often no pauses between
words in the sound signal
Syntactic coordination The process by which people use similar 353
grammatical constructions
Syntactic priming Hearing a statement with a particular syntactic 354
construction increases the chances that a
return sentence will be produced with the
same construction
Syntax Specifies the rules for combining words into 335
sentences
Syntax-first approach to States that as people read a sentence, their 338
parsing grouping of words into phrases is initially and
exclusively governed by a number of rules that
are based on syntax, while other info, like
lexical or pragmatic info, exert their influence
at a later stage
Temporary ambiguity Garden path sentences 338
Visual world paradigm Involves determining how participants process 340
info as they are observing a visual scene
Wernicke’s aphasia Patients who had damage to their temporal 336
lobe and produced speech that was fluent and
grammatically correct but tended to be
incoherent
Word frequency The frequency in which a word appears in a 330
language
Word frequency effect Refers to the fact that we respond more rapidly 330
to high-frequency words than to low-frequency
words
Word superiority effect Refers to the finding that letters are easier to 329
