Psycholinguistics
Comprehension
Phonological level
sounds
Psycholinguistics
Lexical
words
Syntactic
sentences
Discourse
discourse
Production
Acquisition
Carroll, David W. 1999. Psychology of Language, third edition. Pacific Grove:
Brooks/Cole Publishing Company, Chapter 4.
1
Articulatory Features of Phones
Place of Articulation
where constriction occurs
Manner of Articulation
how air obstructed:
Voicing
plus or minus vocal cord vibrations
2
Speech Rates
125-180 words per minute
25-30 phonetic segments per
second (Liberman, 1970);
Yeni-Komshian, Grace H. 1998. Speech perception. In Psycholinguistics, second
edition, pp. 107-156. Jean Berko Gleason and Nan Bernstein Ratner, editors. Fort
Worth: Harcourt Brace College Publishers, p. 110.
3
Vowel Quadrangle as Function
of F1 and F2
Language Files,
seventh edition.
1998. Nick
Cipollone,
Steven Hartman
Keiser, Shravan
Vasishth, editors.
Columbus: Ohio
State University
Press, p. 70.
4
Consonant-Vowel Spectrograms
Ashcraft, Mark H. 1994. Human Memory and Cognition, second edition. New York:
Harper Collins College Publishers, p. 385.
5
Coarticulation
Ashcraft, Mark H.
1994. Human
Memory and
Cognition, second
edition. New York:
Harper Collins
College Publishers,
p. 386.
6
Allophones of /t/
Tom Burton tried to steal a butter plate.
1
2 3
4 5
6
7
1 aspirated
2 glottalized
3 palatalized
4 elongated
5 unaspirated
6 flapped
7 unreleased
7
Coarticulation Study 1
Stimuli:
12 CV syllables
(four fricatives in three vowel contexts: i, u, a;
e.g., si, su, sa)
Computer excised the vowel portion of each
syllable.
Procedure: Remaining "consonant" portion played to subjects.
Task:
Identify the missing vowel.
Results:
[i], [u] reliably identified; [a] not
Conclusion: Fricative portion contains information about vowel
Yeni-Komshian, Grace H. and S.D. Soli. 1981. Recognition of vowels from information in
fricatives: Perceptual evidence of fricative-vowel coarticulation. Journal of the Acoustical
Society of America, 70: 966-975. Cited (p. 137) in Yeni-Komishian, Grace H. 1998. Speech
Perception. In Psycholinguistics, Jean Berko Gleason and Nan Bernstein Ratner, editors, pp.8
107-156.
Coarticulation Study 2 -1
Stimuli:
C1VC2 syllables with [b]: bVb
9 different vowels: beeb, bib, babe, bob
Computer divided syllables in X Y Z
X: transition from C1 to V (Y);
Z: transition from V to C2;
Y central vocalic (vowel) portion
Procedure: Subjects heard:
1. XYZ
2. X—Z (— is a silent gap)
3. Y (steady state portion)
4. Y (fixed length steady state portion)
5. XZ
Task:
Identify the vowel in each test stimulus
9
Coarticulation Study 2 - 2
Results:
Types 2 (X—Z), 1 (XYZ) accurate
Types 3, 5 "significantly more errors"
Type 4 worst
Conclusion: "…formant transitions and vowel
duration are more important cues to the identity
of vowels than a fixed sample of the steadystate information." (126 b)
Jenkins, J.J., W. Strange, T.R. Edman. 1983. Identification of vowels in "vowelless" syllables.
Perception & Psychophysics, 34(5): 441-450. Cited (pp. 125-126) in Yeni-Komishian, Grace H.
1998. Speech Perception. In Psycholinguistics, Jean Berko Gleason and Nan Bernstein Ratner,
editors, pp. 107-156.
10
Fodor's Criteria for Modularity
1) domain specific
2) operates on a mandatory basis
3) fast
4) unaffected by feedback (from
other modules)
See Fodor, Jerry A. 1983. The Modularity of Mind: An Essay on Faculty Psychology.
Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Cited (p. 77) in Carroll, David W. 1999. Psychology of
Language, third edition. Pacific Grove: Brooks/Cole Publishing Company, pp. 369-375, 376381.
11
12
13
Visual Influences
on Speech Perception
Procedure: Present visual picture of someone saying
[ga]
Synchronized with the sound [ba]
Task:
Subject identifies the sound heard
Result:
Subject "hears" and identifies it as [da]
Conclusion: Place of articulation detected by eye
Manner of articulation detected by ear
MacDonald, J. & H. McGurk. 1978. Visual influences on speech perception processes.
Perception & Psychophysics, 24: 253-257. Cited (p. 83) in Carroll, David W. 1999.
Psychology of Language, third edition. Pacific Grove: Brooks/Cole Publishing Company.
14
Levels of Processing for
Aural and Visual Language
SPEECH
TRACE MODEL WRITING
Phonological
Phonetic
Auditory
Word
Phone
Feature
Word
Letter
Feature
Carroll, David W. 1999. Psychology of Language, third edition. Pacific Grove:
Brooks/Cole Publishing Company, Chapter 4.
15
Taylor et al. Study Results
(Trend from Grade 1 to Grade 12)
Duration of fixations
decrease
Regressions per 100 words
decrease
Fixations per 100 words (-Regressions) decrease
Number of words per fixation
increase
Rate (WPM)
increase
Conclusions based on S.E. Taylor, H. Frackenpohl, & J.L. Pettee. 1960. Grade level norms
for the components of the fundamental reading skill. Educational Development Laboratories
Research and Information Bulletin No. 3, Educational Development Laboratories. Cited (p.
93) in Carroll, David W. 1999. Psychology of Language, third edition. Pacific Grove:
Brooks/Cole Publishing Company.
16
Word-Superiority Effect -1
Stimuli:
words, non-words, letters
Procedure: Show subjects one of these using
tachistoscope briefly:
word
(a word)
owrd
(a non-word)
d or k
(a letter)
Task:
Reply to "Did you see a given letter (e.g.,
"d") in final position?"
17
Word-Superiority Effect - 2
Results:
More accurate if the letter appeared
in a word.
Conclusion: The word has an effect on letter
recognition. There must be some topdown processing— though bottom-up
processing can occur
Reicher, G. M. 1969. Perceptual recognition as a function of meaningfulness of
stimulus material. Journal of Experimental Psychology 81: 275-280. Cited (p. 93) in
Carroll, David W. 1999. Psychology of Language, third edition. Pacific Grove:
Brooks/Cole Publishing Company.
18