Language Quiz 11
B.F. Skinner, the modern champion of behaviorism, proposed that language is learned through reinforcement. parsing. genetic coding. syntactic framing.
reinforcement.
Coherence refers to the representation of the text in a reader's mind, so that information in one part of the text is related to information in another part of the text. principle that we process information in isolation before we link it to its context. mental process whereby ambiguity is resolved online during sentence reading. mental process by which readers create information during reading that is not explicitly stated in the text.
representation of the text in a reader's mind, so that information in one part of the text is related to information in another part of the text.
Consider the sentence, "Because he always jogs a mile seems like a short distance to him." The principle of late closure states that this sentence would first be parsed into which of the following phrases? "Because he always jogs a mile" "Because he always jogs" "a mile seems" "he always jogs"
"Because he always jogs a mile"
One of Chomsky's most persuasive arguments for refuting Skinner's theory of language acquisition was his observation that children are rewarded for using correct language. show similar language development across cultures. learn to follow complex language rules, even though they are not aware of doing so. produce sentences they have never heard.
produce sentences they have never heard.
The crucial question in comparing syntax-first and interactionist approaches to parsing is ____ is involved. when semantics when syntax whether syntax whether semantics
when semantics
Which property below is NOT one of the characteristics that makes human language unique? Governed by rules It involves arrangement of a sequence of symbols Communication Hierarchical structure
Communication
When the front part of a sentence can be interpreted more than one way, but the end of the sentence clarifies which meaning is correct, we say that the sentence is an example of speech segmentation. temporary ambiguity. parsing. lexical priming.
speech segmentation
Lexical ambiguity studies show that people access ambiguous words based on a bottom-up progression of meaning comprehension. the identification of a single meaning for that word. the meaning dominance of each definition of the word. the word that comes immediately before and the word that comes immediately after the ambiguous word in the sentence.
the meaning dominance of each definition of the word.
Within the realm of conversational speech, knowledge refers to the previously understood information that we bring into the conversation. the rules for combining spoken words into sentences. the meaning of a conversation.
the previously understood information that we bring into the conversation.
phoneme refers to the property of combining words into unique sentences. a mental grouping of words being heard during "inner audition." the first word produced by infants, usually during their second year. the shortest segment of speech that, if changed, changes the meaning of a word.
the shortest segment of speech that, if changed, changes the meaning of a word.
According to the situation model of text processing, people create a mental representation of what the text is about in terms of people, objects, locations, and events. people draw inferences about what is happening in a story by considering both local and global connections. it will take longer to understand a story that involves a complex series of situations. people create a mental representation of what the text is about in terms of information about phrases, sentences, and paragraphs.
people create a mental representation of what the text is about in terms of information about phrases, sentences, and paragraphs.
According to the situation model of text processing, people create a mental representation of what the text is about in terms of information about phrases, sentences, and paragraphs. people draw inferences about what is happening in a story by considering both local and global connections. it will take longer to understand a story that involves a complex series of situations. people create a mental representation of what the text is about in terms of people, objects, locations, and events.
people create a mental representation of what the text is about in terms of people, objects, locations, and events.
of the following is the best example of a garden path sentence? The Eskimos were frightened by the walrus. The cats won't bake. Before the police stopped the Toyota disappeared into the night. The man was not surprised when he found several spiders, roaches, and other bugs in the corner of the room.
Before the police stopped the Toyota disappeared into the night.
Yoda, a central character of the Star Wars movies created by George Lucas, has a distinctive way of speaking. His statement, "Afraid you will be," violates which property of the English language? Language involves the use of a lexicon Languge has a structure that is governed by rules Language symbols must have high discriminability Coding is required for langauge
Languge has a structure that is governed by rules
The ____ states that the nature of a culture's language can affect the way people think. interactionist approach cooperative principle given-new contract Sapir-Whorf hypothesis
Sapir-Whorf hypothesis
You are conducting a study on how fluency influences the phonemic restoration effect. You study two groups of non-native English speakers, one with a year of English classes and the other with 10 years. All of your stimuli are in English. Who would you expect to show the greatest phonemic restoration effect? The two groups would show equal phonemic restoration effects The group with 10 years of English instruction Neither group would show an effect because they are non-native English speakers The group with one year of English instruction
The group with 10 years of English instruction
Which of the following is NOT influenced by meaning? Phonemic restoration effect The lexical decision task Word superiority effect Word frequency effect
Word frequency effect
Which set of stimuli would be the best selection for having people perform a lexical decision task? Correctly spelled words "speech, potato" and misspelled words "speach, potatoe" Concrete words "window, monkey" and abstract words "doubt, energy" Common words "cat, boat" and uncommon words "peon, furtive" Words "pizza, history" and non-words "pibble, girk"
Words "pizza, history" and non-words "pibble, girk"
In the phonemic restoration effect, participants "fill in" the missing phoneme based on all of the following EXCEPT the context produced by the sentence. a mental "skimming" of the lexicon to find likely words. the portion of the word that was presented. the meaning of the words that follow the missing phoneme.
a mental "skimming" of the lexicon to find likely words.
An experiment on the phonemic restoration effect would most likely include two similar-sounding letters (e.g., "T" and "C"). a categorical perception task. an extraneous cough. a garden-path sentence.
an extraneous cough.
Boxing champion George Foreman recently described his family vacations with the statement, "At our ranch in Marshall, Texas, there are lots of ponds and I take the kids out and we fish. And then of course, we grill them." That a reader understands "them" appropriately (George grills fish, not his kids!) is the result of a(n) _____ inference. analogic instrument anaphoric narrative
anaphoric
Consider the following sentences: "Captain Ahab wanted to kill the whale. He cursed at it." These two sentences taken together provide an example of a(n) anaphoric inference. global connection. garden path sequence. instrument inference.
anaphoric inference.
Imagine you are interpreting a pair of sentences such as "The sidewalk was covered with ice" and "Ramona fell down." The kind of inference we use to link these sentences together would most likely be a(n) _____ inference. causal instrument anaphoric coherent
causal
In the lexical decision task, participants are asked to identify words that are contained in sentences. decide which meaning of an ambiguous sentence is correct in a specific situation. separate a sentence into individual words. decide whether a string of letters is a word or a non-word.
decide whether a string of letters is a word or a non-word.
Tanenhaus and coworkers' eye movement study presented participants with different pictures for interpreting the sentence, "Put the apple on the towel in the box." Their results showed the importance of _____ in how we understand sentences in real-life situations. the cooperative principle environmental context instrumental inferences local connections
environmental context
In an eye movement study, Rayner and coworkers had participants read sentences that contained either a high- or low- frequency target word. For example, the sentence "Sam wore the horrid coat though his ____ girlfriend complained," contained either the target word "pretty" or "demure." Results showed the participants' _____ was shorter for the target word _____. fixation; demure lexical distinction; pretty fixation; pretty lexical distinction; demure
fixation; pretty
Language consists of smaller components, like words, that can be combined to form larger ones, like phrases, to create sentences, which themselves can be components of a larger story. This demonstrates the _______ property of language. hierarchical parallel relational propositional
hierarchical
Noam Chomsky proposed that humans are genetically programmed to acquire and use language. the underlying basis of language is different across cultures. as children learn language, they produce only sentences they have heard before. language is learned through the mechanism of reinforcement.
humans are genetically programmed to acquire and use language.
Tanenhaus and coworkers' eye movement study presented participants with different pictures for interpreting the sentence, "Put the apple on the towel in the box." Their results support the garden-path model to parsing. the syntax-first approach to parsing. both syntax-first and interactionist approaches to parsing. the interactionist approach to parsing.
interactionist
When we look at a record of the physical energy produced by conversational speech in a person's native language, we see that the speech signal has breaks between morphemes. has breaks between phonemes. is continuous. has breaks between words.
is continuous.
The interactionist approach to parsing states that the grammatical structure of a sentence determines the initial parsing. semantics is activated only at the end of a sentence. semantics is only activated to clear up ambiguity. semantics is activated as a sentence is being read.
semantics is activated as a sentence is being read.
According to the idea of _____, when we read a sentence like, "Carmelo grabbed his coat from his bedroom and his backpack from the living room, walked downstairs, and called his friend Gerry," we create a simulation of Carmelo's apartment and keep track of his location as he moves throughout the apartment. speech continuity situation models global connections causal inference
situation models
The word frequency effect refers to the fact that we respond more slowly to low-frequency words than high-frequency words. quickly to letters that appear multiple times in a word than just once in a word. quickly to phonemes that appear multiple times in a word than just once in a word. slowly to letters appearing in non-words than letters appearing in words.
slowly to low-frequency words than high-frequency words.
When two people engage in a conversation, if one person produces a specific grammatical construction in her speech and then the other person does the same, this phenomenon is referred to as anaphoric inferencing. syntactic priming. phonemic restoration. garden-pathing.
syntactic priming
The idea that the rules governing the grouping of words in a sentence is the primary determinant of the way a sentence is parsed is part of the _____ approach to parsing. temporary ambiguity syntax-first semantic interactionist
syntax-first
Brain imaging studies reveal that semantics and syntax are associated with which two lobes of the cerebral cortex? the temporal and parietal lobes the frontal and parietal lobes the parietal and occipital lobes the frontal and temporal lobes
the frontal and temporal lobes
"Kitchen tables" consists of ____ morphemes. three four five two
three
A researcher had participants read each of the sentences below and measured the time it took to read each sentence. Trial 1: The lamb ran past the cottage into the pasture. Trial 2: The dog ran past the house into the yard. The participants' response times were longer for _____ because of the _____ effect. trial 2; word frequency trial 2; word superiority trial 1; word frequency trial 1; word superiority
trial 1; word frequency