Ling 412 - Psycholinguistics
Fall 2009: MWF 2:30 - 3:20, Moore 111.
Course description:
This course is a general introduction to psycholinguistics. It covers
areas such as speech perception, word recognition, lexical ambiguity, sentence
comprehension, sentence production, language acquisition, and neurolinguistics.
We'll look at how language behavior illuminates our understanding of the
mind and the brain, and how properties of the mind and brain influence
human language. You'll learn something about the nature of language,
how it is used, how our language skills develop, and how they can be impaired.
We'll cover topics like:
-
The ways in which speakers' faces affect how you understand their speech.
-
Why some sentences are hard to understand, even when you know all of the
words in them.
-
How you go from having a thought to getting it out as a sentence.
-
Some ways in which what you've just seen or heard might change what you
say.
Students will conduct a small experiment, in which you will test
hypotheses like these:
Letters are more accurately detected in a sentence if they occur in content
words (like 'hat') than function words (like 'the').
The rhythm of a spoken sentence affects
how the listener identifies the grammatical structure of the sentence.
A good title improves comprehension and recall of reading passages.
It's easier to remember words in a sentence than in a list of words.
Talking on a cellphone impairs driving more than talking to someone who's present.
The objects in front of you can affect the interpretation of ambiguous
sentences.
Descriptions of objects become shorter as speakers continue to
talk about them.
Listeners will tend to repeat the grammatical structures (syntactic structures) that they hear.
Prerequisites:
One of the following:
Ling 102
Ling 320
Psy 100
SPA 300
Consent of the instructor
Requirements it meets:
Oral Communication Focus
Requirement (O).
Social Sciences
Diversification Requirement (DS).
Part of an undergraduate certificate offered through Linguistics
.
Part of a major in Linguistics
through the Interdisciplinary Studies
Program .
Textbook:
Carroll, David W. (2008). Psychology
of Language, 5th edition. Thomson/Wadsworth.
Available at the campus bookstore (and elsewhere, including electronic chapters; see link, and used copies).
Who is this course for?
Undergraduate students interested in:
Linguistics
Second Language Studies
Psychology
Speech Pathology and Audiology
Education
East Asian Languages and Literatures
Hawaiian and Indo-Pacific Languages
Languages and Literature of Europe and the Americas
English
Interpretation and Translation
Computer and Information Sciences
Philosophy
Anthropology
and other areas related to the study of language and cognition.
Associated research and teaching laboratories:
Language Analysis
and Experimentation Labs (LAE Labs)
Instructor:
Email:
aschafer at hawaii dot edu
Office: Moore 562
Office phone: 956-3226
Selected course materials and supplemental materials:
Extra credit links:
LBC experiments
Ling Dept Tuesday Seminar
Psycholinguistics Interest Group
Phonetics:
Praat software
Examples of Mandarin
tones
Examples of Cantonese
tones
Vocal
fold movement in slow motion
Another
vocal fold movie
Pronunciation
of IPA symbols: Click to hear
Recordings of the same paragraph
by multiple speakers, with IPA transcription
Interactive
mid-sagittal section
X-ray of
"Try not to annoy her"
Word recognition:
Stroop demonstration
MRC word
database
English Lexicon Project
Language acquisition:
Examples of language
production from 3 months to 36 months
Article on teaching reading (available at Hamilton Library, or free
full text by following the link:
Rayner
K., Foorman B.R., Perfetti C.A., Pesetsky D., & Seidenberg M.S. (2001).
How psychological science informs the teaching of reading. Psychological
Science in the Public Interest , 2 (2), 31-74.
A related, shorter article on teaching reading, for a more general audience:
Rayner,
K., Foorman, B. R., Perfetti, C. A., Pesetsky, D. & Seidenberg, M.
S. (2002). How should reading be taught? Scientific American: March, 2002.
84-91.
Dichotic listening (brain & language unit):
Dichotic
listening example 1 (by Russ Schuh, UCLA)
Dichotic
listening example (by Peter Yuen, University of Queensland)
Searching for references:
PsycInfo
GoogleScholar
GoogleScholar with UH login (for full-text accesss to subscribed journals)
UH Manoa E-Resources and databases
Video resources:
Comments form
UH FileDrop
How to upload to YouTube
Private videos on YouTube
ling412prof YouTube account
Style guidelines for the paper and poster tips:
American Psychological Association
(APA) style (and links for ordering manuals)
UH
undergraduate symposium guidelines for posters
Writing resources:
Manoa Writing
Program - Help for writers
Writing
in the social sciences
What
is an academic paper?
Structure
and organization of papers
Attending
to style
Lab reports
Computer/media information about our classroom:
Moore 111
Other material:
Department
of Linguistics course evaluation, in form-fillable pdf.
UH Student Conduct
Code (Academic Honesty Policy)
Budget/Faculty contract info (feel free to send suggestions for useful links):
UHM budget (Administration, Finance & Operations)
UHM revenues (e.g., What share of the budget comes from tuition?)
UHM expenditures (e.g., What share of the budget is spent on teaching?)
Faculty pay raises, last contract (2003 - 2008 raises; negotiations in process for a 2009 pay cut)
Background to last faculty contract (e.g., Why were raises delayed until the end of the contract?)
UH faculty salaries (by campus, 2008, from UHPA)
UH administration salaries (executive managerial, January 2009)
AAUP faculty salary survey (search for colleges, states)
UHM's comparsion of UH faculty salaries to peer institutions
What do faculty do? (info from the American Association of University Professors)
How are faculty/programs evaluated? (one example)
Examples of faculty research:
State-of-the-art early education practices
First successful AIDS vaccine trial
Commuting patterns of people & mosquito-borne disease
Information science training program
Hawaiian environment
Linguistics (various)
UH research awards by source (e.g., How many federal dollars does UH research bring in?)
UHM overview
Beyond this course:
Next offered:
Ling 412 is offered for Fall 2009. The next offering is anticipated
for Fall 2010.
What about graduate students interested in psycholinguistics?
See course Ling
640Y , or contact Professor Schafer.
Page last updated November 9, 2009.