Psycholinguistic Studies Research Articles

Design of a corpus of stimuli for a psycholinguistic study of lexical ambiguity

Lexical ambiguity takes place when a word has more than one meaning. This phenomenon could therefore lead to multiple difficulties in the processing of information; however, speakers deal almost effortlessly with ambiguous units on a daily basis. In order to understand how ambiguous items are processed by speakers, a clear synchronic definition of homonymy and polysemy is needed. In this paper a methodology to gather subjective information about ambiguous words and the relation within their meanings is proposed. Based on this methodology, a corpus of Spanish stimuli is being developed: this corpus consists of words classified as monosemic, homonymous and polysemous via the subjective interpretation of Spanish speakers. This corpus could be used to conduct experimental tasks to determine the behaviour in on-line processing of items with more than one meaning, in order to later design appropriate methods of approaching this complex phenomenon from the point of view of Psycholinguistics.

What psycholinguistic studies ignore about literary experience

Abstract Multiple decades of psycholinguistic research exploring people’s reading of different types of language has delivered much improved understanding of textual comprehension experience. Psycholinguistic studies have typically focused on a few cognitive and linguistic processes presumed to be central in reading comprehension of language, but this emphasis has omitted other processes and products readers commonly experience in their imaginative, aesthetic encounters with literature. Our paper describes some of the limitations of psycholinguistics for explaining people’s literary experiences. Nonetheless, we argue that recent research on embodied simulation processes may help close the gap between psycholinguistics, with its emphasis on generic processes of non-literary language use, and studies associated with the scientific study of literature with their focus on phenomenological, lived reactions to literary texts.

More than an alphabet

Abstract The Korean Hangul writing system conforms to the alphabetic principle to the extent that its graphs (i.e., its minimal orthographic components) represent phonemes, but it differs from the standard convention of alphabetic orthography by configuring its syllables as blocks. This paper describes the orthographic, phonological, and morphological characteristics of the Korean language and Hangul and reviews a selection of psycholinguistic studies that have investigated Hangul word recognition. In contrast to the results of studies employing Roman alphabetic orthographies, the reviewed evidence highlights at sublexical levels both the dominance of syllable-based processing and a propensity to process CVC syllables as body (CV) plus coda (C) units rather than as onset (C) plus rime (VC) units, which together indicate a script-specific decoding of Hangul words. Although the morphological characteristics of Korean have yet to be fully investigated, consistent with the fact that approximately 70 percent of the Korean lexicon consists of Sino-Korean vocabulary, studies have also observed morphological effects on Hangul word recognition. Based on the psycholinguistic evidence reviewed, this paper concludes by proposing to refer to Hangul as a morphosyllabic alphabet writing system, to the extent that the term appears to adequately capture the orthographic, phonological, and morphological characteristics of the script.

Quantifying subjective data using online Q-methodology software

Abstract The Q-Sort methodology has been used to study participants’ subjective views on various topics (Brown, 1996). The task has historically been completed by manually sorting cards into categories that force responses into a normal distribution (Brown, 1996). Data collection using this method is time consuming and manual data entry is prone to human error. We describe here QMethod Software – a computerized web-based application that allows participants to sort and record their responses online. This online application eliminates the need for researchers to attend the study sessions and to manually enter data. QMethod Software described here is currently being used in both applied and cognitive psychology studies, including a clinical study that evaluates participants’ perception of behaviours seen as most characteristic or most uncharacteristic of psychological aggression or coercive control in situations of intimate partner violence. In a health psychology study, it is being used to examine people’s perceptions of food allergy, and in a psycholinguistics lab it was used to evaluate the affective valence, abstractness, and semantic richness ratings of words. We will show here that the data obtained from one of these psycholinguistic studies (abstractness/concreteness) correlates highly with existing measures (Brysbaert, Warriner & Kuperman, 2014) thus demonstrating that the Q-sort methodology and this particular implementation, the QMethod Software app, reproduces more typical evaluations/assessments in the psycholinguistics literature.

The problem of determining the criteria for speech disorders in modern preschoolers in the aspect of interdisciplinary interaction of specialists

Based on Russian and foreign sources in the field of medicine, psychology and speech therapy, an overview of the main approaches to the systematization of speech disorders in childhood is conducted. It is shown that despite the long and winding path of research, there are numerous descriptions of phenomenology, but there is no consensus about the nature and mechanisms of speech disorders in children. Currently, there are two main directions in the study of speech pathology in children: clinical and psycholinguistic. In a clinical approach, impaired speech is considered as a pathological condition with certain symptoms, etiology and pathogenesis. Psycholinguistic approach to speech pathology involves the correlation of the observed violation with the normal functioning of the processes of generation and perception of speech, as well as an assessment of the degree of formation of language ability. As a result, the analysis of clinical, psychological and psycholinguistic studies shows a lot of contradictions, pushing for an active search for more accurate nominations and differential diagnostic criteria for distinguishing between different states of a child’s speech deficiency. Thus, a tendency is shown to move to a new level of professional reflection from a narrowly focused (clinical, speech therapy, psychological) to a systemic one, in which the focus of scientists will be not only the problem of determining the disadaptive development, but also the prospects for the mental and speech development of the child.

KAJIAN PSIKOLINGUISTIK TERHADAP BENTUK DAN FUNGSI LINGUAL LATAH: STUDI KASUS WARGA MEDAN

hyperstartle syndrome is interesting to research using psycholinguistic study. This research electorates the linguistic form of language of the residents in Jalan Garu III, Medan Amplas, Kota Medan. The qualitative data are words and sentences that used in behavior in Jalan Garu III, Medan Amplas, Kota Medan. The result of the research is the description of the linguistic forms of talkative behavior in the form of words and sentences, including: (1) coprolalia talkative behavior, (2) ecolalia talkative behavior, (3) autoecolalia talkative behavior, (4) automatic obedience talkative behavior. This research discovers some language functions: (1) self expression, (2) interactional function, and (3) personal function.

The Effect of Prominence and Cue Association on Retrieval Processes: A Computational Account.

We present a comprehensive empirical evaluation of the ACT-R-based model of sentence processing developed by Lewis and Vasishth (2005) (LV05). The predictions of the model are compared with the results of a recent meta-analysis of published reading studies on retrieval interference in reflexive-/reciprocal-antecedent and subject-verb dependencies (Jäger, Engelmann, & Vasishth, 2017). The comparison shows that the model has only partial success in explaining the data; and we propose that its prediction space is restricted by oversimplifying assumptions. We then implement a revised model that takes into account differences between individual experimental designs in terms of the prominence of the target and the distractor in memory- and context-dependent cue-feature associations. The predictions of the original and the revised model are quantitatively compared with the results of the meta-analysis. Our simulations show that, compared to the original LV05 model, the revised model accounts for the data better. The results suggest that effects of prominence and variable cue-feature associations need to be considered in the interpretation of existing empirical results and in the design and planning of future experiments. With regard to retrieval interference in sentence processing and to the broader field of psycholinguistic studies, we conclude that well-specified models in tandem with high-powered experiments are needed in order to uncover the underlying cognitive processes.

Ragam Bahasa Indonesia Tentara Nasional Indonesia Angkatan Darat Kajian Psikolinguistik

This research entitled “Indonesian Language Variety of the Army; Psycholinguistic studies”. The way it expess are also in firm, solid, and clear manner. This research is the background of the author to conduct a research on the diversity of languages applied in the military. The aims of this research is to describe and understand the use of language in the military. The method used in this study is descriptive qualitative research method, interview techniques, and oral direct communication with students and military teachers. The implication of this study on linguistics knowledge is that on psycholinguistic study, to find out the mentality of a student while studying at Rindam IX/Udayana.

The role of parallel constructions in imposition

Abstract Imposition, a general mechanism of contact-induced change that manifests itself in creole formation, second language acquisition, and even language attrition (Winford 2013), is a result of unequal dominance in a multilingual’s languages, whereby linguistic features from an individual’s more dominant language are transferred to a less dominant language (van Coetsem 1988). In order to flesh out how imposition operates in multilinguals, this study compares the differences between Singaporean Chinese and Malay speakers in their use of already in Colloquial Singapore English. Based on sociolinguistic interview data from twelve Chinese and eight Malay individuals, it is found that Chinese and Malay speakers differ primarily in two ways: (1) the preferred syntactic position for already; (2) the frequency of different contexts that already appears in. By integrating theories from cognitive linguistics and findings from psycholinguistic studies, this paper argues that ‘equivalent’ constructions across two grammatical systems within a multilingual’s mind is a key channel through which imposition operates. To support this argument, differences between the speech of Chinese and Malay speakers are shown to be motivated by the presence or absence of ‘equivalent’ or parallel constructions.

Easy-to-read German put to the test: Do adults with intellectual disability or functional illiteracy benefit from compound segmentation?

Easy-to-read (ETR) German is the subject of public debate. Even though it is heavily promoted by officials, its status is controversial. Moreover, the comprehensibility of ETR German texts awaits systematic testing. The aim of the present study was to test a controversial rule concerning word segmentation. Hypotheses derived from psycholinguistic studies with skilled readers predict an interaction of segmentation and semantic transparency. A sample of individuals, some with intellectual disability and others functionally illiterate, performed a timed lexical decision task on unsegmented and segmented noun compounds that were either semantically transparent or semantically opaque. The results show an advantage of segmentation that was not modulated by semantic transparency. At the same time, a main effect of semantic transparency indicates that the meaning of the compounds was accessed. Two potential loci of the segmentation advantage are discussed: a prelexical one referring to phonological recoding and a lexical one related to access to phonological word forms. The outcome of the experiment approves the practice of segmenting noun compounds in ETR German. The study further attests the feasibility and potential fruitfulness of experimental research with target groups of ETR.

Psychosemantic Analysis of Psychologists’ Representations About the Place of Psychological Counseling

Introduction. Psycholinguistic studies of a man as a linguistic personality open up new opportunities for scientists to develop technologies aimed to explore the role of counseling psychology in the system of psychological assistance in the representations of psychologists. The use of psycholinguistic research methods, in particular, psychosemantics helps to study the origin, structure and functions of the personal system of knowledge and definitions.
 Aim. The aim of the article is to highlight the research results of word associations of psychologists regarding the role of counseling psychology in the system of psychology practice.
 Research procedure: the study was conducted using the semantic differential scaling and the method of pairwise comparisons. Representatives of different branches of psychology who work in Ukraine took part in it.
 Results. It was determined that counseling psychology is a totally independent branch of assistance in the representations of the research subjects.
 Conclusions: the psycho-semantic research of psychologists’ word associations applyong the semantic differential scaling and the method of pairwise comparisons of all types of psychological therapy according to the criterion of similarity-difference has determined the role of counseling psychology in psychosemantic space. The more the phenomena, stimuli, objects studied are subjectively similar in the generalized psychosemantic space, the closer the indicators of these stimuli are located in the space of signs. Based on such a remote model, subjective data according to the differences of one stimulus from another their mutual arrangement are reconstructed in the space of several signs. The distance between these objects is an indicator of the differences. The research proves that psychological counseling is a totally independent branch of assistance in the representations of the psychologists.

De la séméiologie psychiatrique à la psycholinguistique : définition d'un nouveau modèle de la clinique post-traumatique

ObjectivesThe clinical presentation of post-traumatic psychological disorders means that many cases are under-diagnosed. We need a better way to identify such disorders and to develop markers that can monitor the effectiveness of recommended treatments. Drawing upon an innovative approach based on psycholinguistic concepts, we describe a new clinical model specific to psychological trauma. Material and methodsFounded on quantitative and qualitative analyses of the discourse of psychologically injured patients, we describe the psycholinguistic disturbances they present, illustrating them with examples from clinical practice. ResultsPost-traumatic psycholinguistic syndrome is defined as a function of three symptoms: traumatic anomia, linguistic repetition and disorganised discourse. Traumatic anomia manifests in a quantitative reduction in discourse characterised by a lack of production, impaired verbal flow and lexical poverty. Anomia is partially palliated by diversionary behaviours (peripheral and circumlocutionary deviation, synonymic approximation, semantic paraphrasing) and filler expressions. Linguistic repetition takes the form of phonological and syntactic repetition (verbal stereotypes, predilections, intrusions, perseverations and echophrasia). The person may give a literal account of their traumatic experience, but without a narrative dimension. Phrasal and discursive disorganisation is characterised by time discordance, de-subjectivation (via indefinite and impersonal pronominal markers), and disfluency that can extend to agrammatism due to a lack of logical and chronological connectors. DiscussionPost-traumatic psycholinguistic syndrome is concomitant with the cardinal psychiatric symptoms of trauma. Traumatic anomia is evidence of the unspeakable moment of per-traumatic dissociation, linguistic repetition is consistent with flashbacks, disturbed discourse reproduces the experience of dissociation in sentence form. Evidence of de-subjectivation, the predominance of indefinite and impersonal forms reflects the depersonalization resulting from the trauma, while disorganised discourse reflects the derealization that was perceived as the horror arised. These disturbances in the speech of the psychologically injured person manifest as a consequence of traumatic linguistic dissociation. Extra-linguistic functions (cognitions, emotions, feelings, behaviours, memories, etc.) are not only dissociated from each other but, above all, are dissociated from the major components of language (syntactic and pragmatic signifiers and signified). This is undoubtedly why repetition syndrome lasts as long as it does, but it can also be seen as a therapeutic lever in the context of some types of debriefings that are designed to reconstruct non-pathological speech. ConclusionAt a time when a variety of competing psychotherapeutic protocols (behavioural and cognitive, hypnosis, eye movement therapies, psychodynamic therapies, narrative therapies, etc.) are vying for attention, the analysis of the restoration of normal language could offer a way to create a clearer understanding of psychological trauma and its clinical consequences. In this context, psycholinguistic studies that combine quantitative and qualitative analyses of the discourse of people suffering from post-traumatic stress disorders could help to define some markers of the effectiveness of psychotherapies.

Another look at the online processing of scalar inferences: an investigation of conflicting findings from visual-world eye-tracking studies

ABSTRACT Previous psycholinguistic studies that compared the time course of interpretation for pragmatic some and literal all have returned mixed results. In particular, a delayed pragmatic some has been found in some studies but not in others. We explain these conflicting findings in terms of factors which are independent of incremental semantic/pragmatic interpretation. Two offline experiments provide evidence of the effect of these factors. Three visual-world studies showed that they influence participants’ eye movements in online comprehension. We introduce a new measure for investigating the time course of scalar inference. This new measure allows us to reason about the time course question based on the difference in verification procedures between numbers and quantifiers. Results from our visual-world studies suggest that deriving the pragmatic interpretation is not delayed relative to the semantic interpretation.

Predição Leitora e Consciência Textual: um estudo com alunos do Ensino Fundamental

Based on psycholinguistic studies, this article deals with reading comprehension skills focusing prediction and the textual consciousness level imbricated in this strategy. To demonstrate this theory, a research has been carried on with 55 sixth grade-students whose ages ranged from 11 to 13, all attending the elementary educational level of a public school in the city of Porto Alegre. In order to examine the effective use of predictions, a reading task with parts of a fable was presented in paper cards, as well as questions about the story to stimulate the use of those strategies. The verbal protocol of self-revelation was adopted to verify the participants´ textual level of consciousness. The results showed that most of the students managed to deal with reading prediction, making pertinent anticipations, although 27% of them were unsuccessful. In relation to the textual consciousness in the use of this strategy, just over half of the students showed metalinguistic behavior, being capable to explain the generative bases of their predictions efficiently using both intratextual and extratextual information. Nevertheless, 47% of the pupils were not able to achieve the goal, since they responded the questions in a confusing and mistaken manner or used vague and imprecise information while showing evidences of how they had processed the question. Considering the educational context, the research results suggested that both the use of the reading prediction and its conscious awareness are relevant topics to be applied in Portuguese language classes, for they provide the teacher with information concerning the possibilities and difficulties on students´ reading process.

The Sweet Sounds of Syntax: Music, Language, and the Investigation of Hierarchical Processing

Language and music are uniquely human faculties, defined by a level of sophistication found onlyin our species. The ability to productively combine contrastive units of sound, namely words inlanguage and notes in music, underlies much of the vast communicative and expressive capacities ofthese systems. Though the intrinsic rules of syntax in language and music differ in many regards,they both lead to the construction of complex hierarchies of interconnected, functional units. Muchresearch has examined the overlap, distinction, and general neuropsychological nature of syntaxin language and music but, in comparison to the psycholinguistic study of sentence processing,musical structure has been regarded at a coarse level of detail, especially in terms of hierarchicaldependencies. The current research synthesizes recent ideas from the fields of generative music theory,linguistic syntax, and neurolinguistics to outline a more detailed, hierarchy-based methodology forinvestigating the brain’s processing of structures in music.

Le trauma de guerre comme moteur d’écriture : analyse patho-littéraire et psycholinguistique de Louis-Ferdinand Céline

Le trauma de guerre comme moteur d’écriture : analyse patho-littéraire et psycholinguistique de Louis-Ferdinand Céline

Concrete vs. Abstract Semantics: From Mental Representations to Functional Brain Mapping.

The nature of abstract and concrete semantics and differences between them have remained a debated issue in psycholinguistic and cognitive studies for decades. Most of the available behavioral and neuroimaging studies reveal distinctions between these two types of semantics, typically associated with a so-called “concreteness effect.” Many attempts have been made to explain these differences using various approaches, from purely theoretical linguistic and cognitive frameworks to neuroimaging experiments. In this brief overview, we will try to provide a snapshot of these diverse views and relationships between them and highlight the crucial issues preventing this problem from being solved. We will argue that one potentially beneficial way forward is to identify the neural mechanisms underpinning acquisition of the different types of semantics (e.g., by using neurostimulation techniques to establish causal relationships), which may help explain the distinctions found between the processing of concrete and abstract semantics.

Variasi Kosakata Bahasa Ibu dalam Pemerolehan Bahasa Anak Balita di Desa Marga Dauh Puri, Kabupaten Tabanan: Kajian Psikolinguistik

This research is entitled "Vocabulary of Mother Language Variations in Acquiring Toddler Language in Marga Dauh Puri Village, Tabanan Regency: Psycholinguistic Study." The purpose of this study was to find out vocabulary categories, word variations, and factors that influence mastery and acquisition of language variations given his mother to a toddler in Marga Dauh Puri Village, Tabanan Regency. The theory used is the theory of language acquisition proposed by Chaer, the theory of language teaching proposed by Simanjuntak, and the theory of child development proposed by Chaer. To achieve these objectives, several methods and techniques are used. The source of the data for analysis was the family that had a five-year-old child in the Village of Marga Dauh Puri, Tabanan Regency. Furthermore, it was chosen by quota sampling technique. The results of this study are in the form of vocabulary taught by mothers to children including vocabulary categories such as noun categories, verbs, and adjective categories. The use of the dominant language taught is Balinese. Vocabulary variations include repetition and word variations. The dominant vocabulary variation used by mothers is word variation. Factors that influence the mastery and acquisition of vocabulary by children under five, are environmental factors, formal teaching factors, and age factors. The dominant factor influencing the mastery and acquisition of vocabulary by children under five in Marga Dauh Puri Village, Tabanan Regency is an age factor.

Reconciling CV phonotactics and high vowel deletion in Japanese

High vowel devoicing is a productive process in Japanese, where /i, u/ become unphonated between voiceless obstruents. Recent studies have shown that the vowels can completely delete as a result of the process, resulting in surface consonant clusters. This seemingly conflicts with the strong CV phonotactic preference that has repeatedly been shown in both phonological and psycholinguistic studies of Japanese. This paper proposes that the apparent conflict can be resolved by having phonotactic repairs and high vowel devoicing apply at different phonological levels, adopting a more sophisticated phonological representation than simple /underlying/ vs. [surface] forms. The proposed framework also makes an empirically testable prediction regarding syllabification of clusters that result from high vowel deletion.

Psycholinguistic Study of Functioning of Cognitions and Metacognitions on the Levels of Social Intelligence

The article states that social intelligence in psychology is seen as the ability of a person to understand correctly his/her own behavior and the behavior of other people in the society. This ability is very necessary for a person to have an effective interpersonal interaction and successful social adaptation. Social intelligence implements the functioning of cognitive processes associated with the reflection of a person as a partner in the processes of communication and activities. The main function of social intelligence is to predict the behavior of others.
 The authors of the article consider the concept of “intelligence” in the broad and narrow senses. In a broad meaning of “intelligence” it is only one intelligence, the intellectual sphere of the person in general. In this sense, the intelligence of a person can be described as a hierarchical system that has several levels. The first level is the level of functioning of cognitions. The second level of intelligence is the level of metacognitions. The third level of intelligence amplifies the characteristics of both the first and the second levels, while intellectual activity is carried out mainly at an unconscious level, a level that approximates a person to use of automated skills and abilities. The next, the fourth level, is the level of meta-intellectual activity, which explodes the creative achievements of the person.
 It was proved that each type of intelligence contained some abilities of the person to perform a certain type of the activity. Guided by the narrow sense of understanding the word “intelligence”, it was determined: social intelligence; technical intelligence; artistic intelligence; information intelligence.
 It was described the empirical research which was organized in different regions of Ukraine (the participants of this research were teachers and directors from preschool educational establishments). The results having been received in this research proved that the respondents of all groups have the results which show the advantage of average indicators of their ability to understand the meanings of non-verbal expressions and the meaning of the expression, depending on a social context. This may be due to the fact that these abilities are formed in the immediate process of communication and to a large extent depend on the conditions of the life of the subjects, at the first place – on the conditions of their professional activity, means and methods of professional activity of teachers of preschool educational establishments.