Methodologies Psycholinguistics

1 methodologies

1.1 behavioral tasks
1.2 eye-movements
1.3 language production errors
1.4 neuroimaging
1.5 computational modeling

methodologies
behavioral tasks

many of experiments conducted in psycholinguistics, earlier on, behavioral in nature. in these types of studies, subjects presented linguistic stimuli , asked perform action. example, may asked make judgment word (lexical decision), reproduce stimulus, or name visually presented word aloud. reaction times respond stimuli (usually on order of milliseconds) , proportion of correct responses employed measures of performance in behavioral tasks. such experiments take advantage of priming effects, whereby priming word or phrase appearing in experiment can speed lexical decision related target word later.

as example of how behavioral methods can used in psycholinguistics research, fischler (1977) investigated word encoding using lexical decision task. asked participants make decisions whether 2 strings of letters english words. strings actual english words requiring yes response, , other times nonwords requiring no response. subset of licit words related semantically (e.g., cat-dog) while others unrelated (e.g., bread-stem). fischler found related word pairs responded faster when compared unrelated word pairs. facilitation suggests semantic relatedness can facilitate word encoding.

eye-movements

recently, eye tracking has been used study online language processing. beginning rayner (1978) importance , informativity of eye-movements during reading established. later, tanenhaus et al. (1995) used visual-world paradigm study cognitive processes related spoken language. assuming eye movements closely linked current focus of attention, language processing can studied monitoring eye movements while subject presented auditorily linguistic input.

language production errors

the analysis of systematic errors in speech, writing , typing of language produced can provide evidence of process has generated it. errors of speech, in particular, grant insight how mind processes language production while speaker in midst of utterance. speech errors tend occur in lexical, morpheme, , phoneme encoding steps of language production, seen ways errors can manifest. the types of speech errors, , examples, are:

substitutions (phoneme , lexical) – replacing sound unrelated sound, or word antonym, , saying verbal outfit instead of verbal output , or rode bike tomorrow instead of ...yesterday , respectively,
blends – mixing 2 synonyms , saying my stummy hurts in place of either stomach or tummy ,
exchanges (phoneme [a.k.a. spoonerisms] , morpheme) – swapping 2 onset sounds or 2 root words, , saying you hissed my mystery lectures instead of you missed my history lectures , or re turking talkish instead of re talking turkish , respectively,
morpheme shifts – moving function morpheme such -ly or -ed different word , saying easy enoughly instead of easily enough ,
perseveration – continuing start word sound in utterance , saying john gave the goy ball instead of john gave the boy ball , and
anticipation – replacing sound 1 coming later in utterance , saying drank cot cup of tea instead of drank hot cup of tea.

speech errors occur in stages involve lexical, morpheme, or phoneme encoding, , not first step of semantic encoding. this can credited how speaker still conjuring idea of say, , unless changes mind, can not mistaken in wanted say.

neuroimaging

until recent advent of non-invasive medical techniques, brain surgery preferred way language researchers discover how language works in brain. example, severing corpus callosum (the bundle of nerves connects 2 hemispheres of brain) @ 1 time treatment forms of epilepsy. researchers study ways in comprehension , production of language affected such drastic surgery. illness made brain surgery necessary, language researchers had opportunity pursue research.

newer, non-invasive techniques include brain imaging positron emission tomography (pet); functional magnetic resonance imaging (fmri); event-related potentials (erps) in electroencephalography (eeg) , magnetoencephalography (meg); , transcranial magnetic stimulation (tms). brain imaging techniques vary in spatial , temporal resolutions (fmri has resolution of few thousand neurons per pixel, , erp has millisecond accuracy). each type of methodology presents set of advantages , disadvantages studying particular problem in psycholinguistics.

computational modeling

computational modeling, such drc model of reading , word recognition proposed max coltheart , colleagues, methodology , refers practice of setting cognitive models in form of executable computer programs. such programs useful because require theorists explicit in hypotheses , because can used generate accurate predictions theoretical models complex render discursive analysis unreliable. example of computational modeling mcclelland , elman s trace model of speech perception.