Cognition
Chapter 10
Language II: Language
Production and Bilingualism
Cognition 7e, Margaret Matlin
Chapter 10
Introduction
Many forms of language production
Social nature of language production
More research on comprehension than production
Cognition 7e, Margaret Matlin
Chapter 10
Speaking
Producing a Word
Selecting the word
Grammatical, semantic, and phonological
accuracy
Are all three kinds of information retrieved
simultaneously or independently?
van Turennout and colleagues (1998)—grammatical gender
accessed about 40 milliseconds before phonological
properties
Cognition 7e, Margaret Matlin
Chapter 10
Speaking
Producing a Word
Motor movements of vocal system and
gestures
Frick-Horbury and Guttentag (1998)
read definitions and identify word with or without hand
movements restricted
Eyes and looking before naming
Cognition 7e, Margaret Matlin
Chapter 10
Speaking
Producing a Sentence
Limits of attention and memory
Order of producing speech:
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•
•
•
•
Plan the gist – intent/meaning
Construct general structure of sentence – syntax,
not words
Choose words (with correct grammatical form)
Connect to phonemes
Coordinate muscle movements to produce speech
Cognition 7e, Margaret Matlin
Chapter 10
Speaking
Producing a Sentence
Pauses occupy about half of our speaking time
Linearization problem—transforming general
thought or mental image into an ordered,
linear sequence of words
Prosody—"melody", rhythm, emphasis
Cognition 7e, Margaret Matlin
Chapter 10
Speaking
Speech Errors
slips-of-the-tongue—errors in which sounds or entire
words are rearranged between two or more
different words
Types of Slip-of-the-Tongue Errors
1. Sound errors
2. Morpheme errors
3. Word errors
Cognition 7e, Margaret Matlin
Chapter 10
Speaking
Speech Errors
Types of Slip-of-the-Tongue Errors
• each type can involve errors of: exchange,
anticipation, perseveration, and/or deletion
• errors reveal our extensive language
knowledge
• errors tend to occur across items from the
same category
Cognition 7e, Margaret Matlin
Chapter 10
Speaking
Speech Errors
Dell's Model of Sound Processing in Sentence
Production
similar to connectionist approach
spreading activation
planning activates sound elements
each sound can be activated by several different
words
high activation can cause the incorrect sound to be
produced
Cognition 7e, Margaret Matlin
Chapter 10
Dell’s Model of Sound
Processing in Sentence
Production (simplified)
Cognition 7e, Margaret Matlin
Chapter 10
Speaking
Producing Discourse
discourse—language units larger than a
sentence
narrative—type of discourse in which someone
describes a series of actual or fictional events
time-related sequence
emotionally involving
goal to convey
words chosen carefully
entertaining
Cognition 7e, Margaret Matlin
Chapter 10
Speaking
Producing Discourse
narrative structure
overview
summary of characters and setting
complicating action
point
resolution
final signal of completion
Cognition 7e, Margaret Matlin
Chapter 10
Speaking
The Social Context of Speech
Speakers must consider their conversation
partners
coordinating turn-taking
agreed meanings
intentions
pragmatics—knowledge of the social rules that
underlie language use; how speakers
successfully communicate messages to their
audience
Cognition 7e, Margaret Matlin
Chapter 10
Speaking
The Social Context of Speech
Common Ground
common ground—occurs when conversationalists
share similar background knowledge, schemas,
and experiences necessary for mutual
understanding
collaboration
paying attention
avoiding ambiguous statements
clarify misunderstandings
nonverbal language to clarify
Cognition 7e, Margaret Matlin
Chapter 10
Speaking
The Social Context of Speech
Common Ground
Clark and Wilkes-Gibbs (1986)
pairs of participants arranging figures in order
developing mutual shorthand and shared vocabulary
conversational partners become more skilled in
communicating efficiently
Cognition 7e, Margaret Matlin
Chapter 10
Common Ground
Figures from Demonstration 10.3: Collaborating to Establish
Common Ground
Cognition 7e, Margaret Matlin
Chapter 10
Speaking
The Social Context of Speech
Common Ground
lexical entrainment—pattern two communicators use
when they create and adopt a standard term to refer
to an object
Cognition 7e, Margaret Matlin
Chapter 10
Speaking
The Social Context of Speech
Common Ground
Bortfeld and Brennan (1997)
photos of chairs
English, Japanese, Chinese, and Korean speakers
all pairs showed same degree of lexical entrainment
speakers often overestimate listeners' ability to understand a
message
Cognition 7e, Margaret Matlin
Chapter 10
Speaking
The Social Context of Speech
Common Ground
• speakers tend to assume that listeners need and
want the same things the speakers themselves do
• less likely to effectively establish common ground
under time pressure
Cognition 7e, Margaret Matlin
Chapter 10
Speaking
The Social Context of Speech
Directives
directive—a sentence that requests someone to do
something
polite directives require more words
overly elaborate directives may seem insulting
anticipate potential obstacles to compliance
indirect request—stated like a request for
information, even though really a request for
someone to do something or to stop doing
something
Cognition 7e, Margaret Matlin
Chapter 10
Writing
Writing requires virtually every cognitive process
One of the least understood linguistic tasks
Similarities and differences from speaking
Planning, sentence generation, revising
Cognition 7e, Margaret Matlin
Chapter 10
Writing
A Cognitive Model of Writing
Cognitive processes, social factors, motor
factors, motivational factors
self-efficacy—your own assessment of your
capabilities
Cognition 7e, Margaret Matlin
Chapter 10
Writing
A Cognitive Model of Writing
working memory
phonological loop
visuospatial sketchpad
central executive
long-term memory including semantic memory,
expertise, schemas, and knowledge about
specific writing style
Cognition 7e, Margaret Matlin
Chapter 10
Writing
Planning the Writing Assignment
prewriting—generating a list of ideas; difficult
and strategic; large individual differences
outlining
resolving linearization problem
Cognition 7e, Margaret Matlin
Chapter 10
Writing
Sentence Generation During Writing
sentence generation—translate the general
ideas developed during planning into actual
sentences of the text
hesitant phases and fluent phases
longer vs. shorter words
writing errors most likely to be spelling errors
within a single word rather than between-word
errors like slips-of-the-tongue
Cognition 7e, Margaret Matlin
Chapter 10
Writing
The Revision Phase of Writing
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•
•
emphasize the importance of organization and
coherence
reconsider whether the writing accomplishes
the goals of the assignment
revision should be time consuming
Cognition 7e, Margaret Matlin
Chapter 10
Writing
The Revision Phase of Writing
•
•
•
effective writers use flexible revision strategies
college students typically devote little time to
revising
metacognitions about the writing process seem
to be inaccurate
Cognition 7e, Margaret Matlin
Chapter 10
Writing
The Revision Phase of Writing
Experts vs. Novices
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•
•
•
novices revise sentence-by-sentence; focus on
spelling and grammar
experts work more on organization, focus, and
transition between ideas
novices judge defective sentences as appropriate
experts better able to diagnose the source of a
problem in a sentence
Cognition 7e, Margaret Matlin
Chapter 10
Writing
The Revision Phase of Writing
Proofreading
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•
•
difficult to proofread your own writing
spell-checkers don't catch everything
proofread for spelling separately from content
Cognition 7e, Margaret Matlin
Chapter 10
Writing
Metacognition and Writing
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•
•
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•
metacognitive strategies helpful at all stages
of writing
random thoughts vs. transforming knowledge
analyzing potential problems in advance and
planning how to solve them
monitoring whether writing matches intended
message
beware of overconfidence
Cognition 7e, Margaret Matlin
Chapter 10
Writing
Applied Psychology: Writing About
Emotional Problems
Pennebaker and colleagues—writing in clinical
psychology settings
15-20 minutes a day, 3 to 4 consecutive days
write about previous traumatic experience vs. trivial
topics
Cognition 7e, Margaret Matlin
Chapter 10
Writing
Applied Psychology: Writing About
Emotional Problems
Pennebaker and colleagues (continued)
experimental condition benefits—better grades,
finding job, improved immune system
words about cognitive activity better predictor of
physical health than words revealing emotions
creating an understanding of the painful experience
Cognition 7e, Margaret Matlin
Chapter 10
Writing
Applied Psychology: Writing About
Emotional Problems
Westling and colleagues (2007)
writing program with HIV-positive women
women who wrote about life meaning more likely to
show improvement in taking medications
Cognition 7e, Margaret Matlin
Chapter 10
Bilingualism and SecondLanguage Acquisition
most people throughout the world have mastered two
or more languages
bilingual speaker—a person who actively uses two
different languages
multilingual
simultaneous bilingualism
sequential bilingualism, first language, second
language
interlanguage
Cognition 7e, Margaret Matlin
Chapter 10
Bilingualism and SecondLanguage Acquisition
Background on Bilingualism
More than half of the people in the world are at
least somewhat bilingual
Valuing non-English first languages
Political and social-psychological implications
Social-psychological factors predictive of success
in acquiring a second language—motivation
and attitude toward speakers of that language
Learning a language can also influence attitudes
Cognition 7e, Margaret Matlin
Chapter 10
Bilingualism and SecondLanguage Acquisition
Advantages of Bilingualism
1. Bilinguals actually acquire more expertise in
their native (first) language.
2. Bilinguals are more aware that the names
assigned to concepts are arbitrary (part of
metalinguistics, or knowledge about the form
and structure of language).
3. Bilinguals excel at paying selective attention to
relatively subtle aspects of a language task,
ignoring more obvious linguistic
characteristics.
Cognition 7e, Margaret Matlin
Chapter 10
Bilingualism and SecondLanguage Acquisition
Advantages of Bilingualism
4. Bilingual children are better at following
complicated instructions and performing tasks
where the instructions change from one trial to
the next.
5. Bilinguals perform better on concept-formation
tasks and on tests of nonverbal intelligence
that require reorganization of visual patterns.
Bilinguals also score higher on problemsolving tasks that require them to ignore
irrelevant information.
Cognition 7e, Margaret Matlin
Chapter 10
Bilingualism and SecondLanguage Acquisition
Advantages of Bilingualism
6. Bilingual children perform better than
monolinguals on tests of creativity, such as
thinking of a wide variety of uses for a paper
clip.
7. Bilingual children are more sensitive to some
pragmatic aspects of language.
Cognition 7e, Margaret Matlin
Chapter 10
Bilingualism and SecondLanguage Acquisition
Advantages of Bilingualism
Bialystok (2001, 2002)—most advantages can be
traced to selective-attention skills; inhibiting
the most obvious response to produce an
alternative response
Disadvantages far outweighed by advantages
Cognition 7e, Margaret Matlin
Chapter 10
Bilingualism and SecondLanguage Acquisition
In Depth: Second-Language Proficiency as
a Function of Age of Acquisition
age of acquisition
critical period hypothesis
gradual decline vs. abrupt drop
Cognition 7e, Margaret Matlin
Chapter 10
Bilingualism and SecondLanguage Acquisition
In Depth: Second-Language Proficiency as
a Function of Age of Acquisition
Phonology
age of acquisition does influence mastery of
phonology (sounds of speech)
Flege and coauthors (1999)
Korean-Americans
degree of accent inversely correlated with age of emigration
fairly smooth decline rather than abrupt drop
Cognition 7e, Margaret Matlin
Chapter 10
Bilingualism and SecondLanguage Acquisition
In Depth: Second-Language Proficiency as
a Function of Age of Acquisition
Vocabulary
when the measure of language proficiency is
vocabulary, age of acquisition does not seem to be
related to language skills
Cognition 7e, Margaret Matlin
Chapter 10
Bilingualism and SecondLanguage Acquisition
In Depth: Second-Language Proficiency as
a Function of Age of Acquisition
Grammar
Flege and coauthors (1999)
judging sentences as grammatical
once we control for years of education in the United States,
age of acquisition was not related to an individual's mastery
of English grammar
Studies with other languages—no consistent
relationship between age of arrival and mastery of
English grammar
Cognition 7e, Margaret Matlin
Chapter 10
Bilingualism and SecondLanguage Acquisition
Individual Differences: Simultaneous
Interpreters and Working Memory
translation—from a text written in one language
into a second written language
interpreting—the process of translating from a
spoken message in one language into a second
spoken language
three working-memory tasks at the same time
Cognition 7e, Margaret Matlin
Chapter 10
Bilingualism and SecondLanguage Acquisition
Individual Differences: Simultaneous
Interpreters and Working Memory
Christoffels, de Groot, and Kroll (2006)
Dutch speakers—students, teachers of English,
interpreters
reading-span test and speaking-span test
all groups recalled more words in their native
language (Dutch)
simultaneous interpreters remembered significantly
more words than the other two groups, both in
reading span and speaking span
Cognition 7e, Margaret Matlin
Chapter 10
Simultaneous
Interpreters
Cognition 7e, Margaret Matlin
Chapter 10