PSYC 224 UIUC Exam 3 Questions with Verified Solutions Latest Update 2025/2026
The allowable sound combinations in a language are determined by the _____________ rules of
that language. - Answers phonology
The smallest significant unit of sound in a language is a __________ and the smallest significant
unit of meaning in a language is a ___________. - Answers phoneme, morpheme
A linguist is studying the _________ of English. She might conduct an experiment to determine
how non-native speakers learn to use prefixes and suffixes. - Answers morphology
Name some morphemes - Answers "ed", "s", "es"
Noam Chomsky's famous saying "colorless green ideas sleep furiously" violates the rules of
_________ but not the rules of ___________. - Answers semantics, syntax
The ambiguity of sentences such as "visiting relatives can be a nuisance," is at the level of: -
Answers pragmatics
The fact that people recognize words more quickly when they are in a sentence that makes
sense is consistent with what model? - Answers Interactive activation model
Describe the interactive activation model - Answers Use all the information you have as soon as
you can (signal, memory, context); top-down and bottom-up
The Marx brothers joke "Last night I saw an elephant in my pajamas, how he got there, I'll never
know" illustrates ambiguity at the level of: - Answers syntactic level
What does the evidence suggest about the use of top-down information during language
comprehension in experiments looking at how people resolve ambiguity at the level of (1) sound,
(2) word meanings, (3) syntax? - Answers visual cues, linguistic cues, person-specific cues
In an experiment, subjects heard the following sentences in which a particular sound was
replaced with a loud crash: it was found the *out was on a lake, hanger, or farm. This experiment
found: - Answers people heard word that made most sense, didn't notice missing sound
(phonemic restoration effect)
In an experiment looking at word meaning ambiguity, participants are asked to respond as
quickly as possible to target words that are related in meaning to one of the senses of an
ambiguous prime word. For example, participants might see the word "train" and then have to
respond to either the word "bride" or the word "engine" (or an unrelated word like "couch" that
serves as the baseline condition). The ambiguous word is presented in a sentence that is
consistent with only one of the meanings. For example, the participant might read: "My whole
family guesses the color of the last car whenever we are waiting for a passing train." and then
have to respond to the target word "bride" or the target word "engine". Which pattern of results
would be predicted by an interactive model of language comprehension? - Answers Use context
, to look up meaning that goes with sentence (engine)
In an experiment looking at word meaning ambiguity, participants are asked to respond as
quickly as possible to target words that are related in meaning to one of the senses of an
ambiguous prime word. For example, participants might see the word "train" and then have to
respond to either the word "bride" or the word "engine" (or an unrelated word like "couch" that
serves as the baseline condition). The ambiguous word is presented in a sentence that is
consistent with only one of the meanings. For example, the participant might read: "My whole
family guesses the color of the last car whenever we are waiting for a passing train." and then
have to respond to the target word "bride" or the target word "engine". What pattern would
support a serial model? - Answers pick more common meaning of word (engine)
A key debate in the language comprehension literature centers around whether or not people
automatically make elaborative inferences as they read. One view, sometimes called the
minimalist view, argues that they do NOT. Imagine that you ask people to read the following two
versions of the same passage: "The robber [version 1: broke the glass][version 2: used force] in
order to get into the house. After he took the owner's jewelry, he quickly exited through the
window." As they read, you measure how long they fixate (look at) each word in the passage.
What pattern of results would support the minimalist view? - Answers same fixations on each
word
If a person says they need to "twitch on the television," they have committed what kind of error?
- Answers anticipation error
List characteristics of sound exchange errors: - Answers occur mostly between nearby words,
tend not to occur across phrases, do not respect grammatical category or function ("rack pat")
List characteristics of word exchange errors: - Answers span some distance, respect
grammatical category and function ("write a mother to my letter")
Saying "I plan to deer brink at happy hour next Friday" (instead of "drink beer") is what kind(s) of
error(s)? Is this a typical error for that type? - Answers Sound exchange
Connectionist models of language production do a better job than serial models at explaining: -
Answers mixed errors and lexical bias
To examine these two types of models, Mike and Brian participate in an experiment. They are
asked to silently read word pairs and, on occasion, are cued to read the pairs aloud as quickly as
possible. On the first four trials, Mike and Brian are both given the following pairs of words,
which they are to read silently: ball dome; beak doll; bus door; bell dark. On the fifth trial, Mike is
cued to read aloud the following pair as quickly as possible: darn bore. Brian, however, is cued
to read aloud a different pair of words as quickly as possible: dart board. The discrete, two-
stage model would predict what? - Answers Doesn't care about words (Mike)
To examine these two types of models, Mike and Brian participate in an experiment. They are
The allowable sound combinations in a language are determined by the _____________ rules of
that language. - Answers phonology
The smallest significant unit of sound in a language is a __________ and the smallest significant
unit of meaning in a language is a ___________. - Answers phoneme, morpheme
A linguist is studying the _________ of English. She might conduct an experiment to determine
how non-native speakers learn to use prefixes and suffixes. - Answers morphology
Name some morphemes - Answers "ed", "s", "es"
Noam Chomsky's famous saying "colorless green ideas sleep furiously" violates the rules of
_________ but not the rules of ___________. - Answers semantics, syntax
The ambiguity of sentences such as "visiting relatives can be a nuisance," is at the level of: -
Answers pragmatics
The fact that people recognize words more quickly when they are in a sentence that makes
sense is consistent with what model? - Answers Interactive activation model
Describe the interactive activation model - Answers Use all the information you have as soon as
you can (signal, memory, context); top-down and bottom-up
The Marx brothers joke "Last night I saw an elephant in my pajamas, how he got there, I'll never
know" illustrates ambiguity at the level of: - Answers syntactic level
What does the evidence suggest about the use of top-down information during language
comprehension in experiments looking at how people resolve ambiguity at the level of (1) sound,
(2) word meanings, (3) syntax? - Answers visual cues, linguistic cues, person-specific cues
In an experiment, subjects heard the following sentences in which a particular sound was
replaced with a loud crash: it was found the *out was on a lake, hanger, or farm. This experiment
found: - Answers people heard word that made most sense, didn't notice missing sound
(phonemic restoration effect)
In an experiment looking at word meaning ambiguity, participants are asked to respond as
quickly as possible to target words that are related in meaning to one of the senses of an
ambiguous prime word. For example, participants might see the word "train" and then have to
respond to either the word "bride" or the word "engine" (or an unrelated word like "couch" that
serves as the baseline condition). The ambiguous word is presented in a sentence that is
consistent with only one of the meanings. For example, the participant might read: "My whole
family guesses the color of the last car whenever we are waiting for a passing train." and then
have to respond to the target word "bride" or the target word "engine". Which pattern of results
would be predicted by an interactive model of language comprehension? - Answers Use context
, to look up meaning that goes with sentence (engine)
In an experiment looking at word meaning ambiguity, participants are asked to respond as
quickly as possible to target words that are related in meaning to one of the senses of an
ambiguous prime word. For example, participants might see the word "train" and then have to
respond to either the word "bride" or the word "engine" (or an unrelated word like "couch" that
serves as the baseline condition). The ambiguous word is presented in a sentence that is
consistent with only one of the meanings. For example, the participant might read: "My whole
family guesses the color of the last car whenever we are waiting for a passing train." and then
have to respond to the target word "bride" or the target word "engine". What pattern would
support a serial model? - Answers pick more common meaning of word (engine)
A key debate in the language comprehension literature centers around whether or not people
automatically make elaborative inferences as they read. One view, sometimes called the
minimalist view, argues that they do NOT. Imagine that you ask people to read the following two
versions of the same passage: "The robber [version 1: broke the glass][version 2: used force] in
order to get into the house. After he took the owner's jewelry, he quickly exited through the
window." As they read, you measure how long they fixate (look at) each word in the passage.
What pattern of results would support the minimalist view? - Answers same fixations on each
word
If a person says they need to "twitch on the television," they have committed what kind of error?
- Answers anticipation error
List characteristics of sound exchange errors: - Answers occur mostly between nearby words,
tend not to occur across phrases, do not respect grammatical category or function ("rack pat")
List characteristics of word exchange errors: - Answers span some distance, respect
grammatical category and function ("write a mother to my letter")
Saying "I plan to deer brink at happy hour next Friday" (instead of "drink beer") is what kind(s) of
error(s)? Is this a typical error for that type? - Answers Sound exchange
Connectionist models of language production do a better job than serial models at explaining: -
Answers mixed errors and lexical bias
To examine these two types of models, Mike and Brian participate in an experiment. They are
asked to silently read word pairs and, on occasion, are cued to read the pairs aloud as quickly as
possible. On the first four trials, Mike and Brian are both given the following pairs of words,
which they are to read silently: ball dome; beak doll; bus door; bell dark. On the fifth trial, Mike is
cued to read aloud the following pair as quickly as possible: darn bore. Brian, however, is cued
to read aloud a different pair of words as quickly as possible: dart board. The discrete, two-
stage model would predict what? - Answers Doesn't care about words (Mike)
To examine these two types of models, Mike and Brian participate in an experiment. They are
