Finishing up Interactions in Memory Intro to Language & Dyslexia

Tuesday, June 28th Jordan Lippman

Recap last time: Interactions in memory

Finishing up Interactions in Memory

Method Loftus & Palmer, 1974

Results

Conclusion

Intro to Language

What is language?

Levels of language analysis

Orthography – the text on the page

phonology – the sounds of language
syntax – word order and grammar
semantics – meaning

phonemes – smallest unit of language; category or group of language sounds that are
treated as the same sound, despite physical differences
     -categorical perception – judging a series of speech sounds to be part of the
        same phonemic category
        1. influenced by native language

2. can be influenced by regional dialects

-phonemic competence –

    -speech perception and context
          -the problem of invariance –

                -coarticulation
                -segmentation errors

    -speech recognition is highly top-down, or conceptually, processed
              -Pollack & Pickett (1964)

Interaction of syntax and semantics

You can have a sentence that has syntax but no semantics.

Word order and phrase order can influence your semantic interpretation.

Chomsky’s transformational grammar
According to Chomsky’s transformational grammar, sentences are analyzed according
to their phrase structure, instead of word-by-word. Some phrases are more important
than others. In addition, we can transform the meaning, or semantics, of a sentence by
transforming the structure of the phrases, or changing the syntax.

Every sentence has two levels, the surface structure and the deep structure.
surface structure –
deep structure –

Two sentences can have different surface structures but the same deep structure.

A sentence can have one surface structure but two deep structures.

We understand sentences one phrase at a time. When reading or listening to a sentence, people immediately analyze the syntax and then compute an overall meaning of the sentence.
Garden path sentences are evidence for this process.

Dyslexia

Definition of Learning Disabilities (LD)

Characteristics & definitions of dyslexia

•Shaywitz Worksheet Question 1: Model of language processing.

•Shaywitz Worksheet Question 2: What is Dyslexia?

Difficulties experienced by dyslexics

•Shaywitz Worksheet Question 4: Brain regions

Problems & Controversies

Theories of dyslexia & evidence

1) The independence (or phonological) model

Shaywitz Worksheet Question 5: Evidence

2) General resource model

Evidence: