Cognitive Psychology Chapter 10 Comprehension

1. Cognitive Psychology Chapter 10 Comprehension

2. March 6, 2014 Chapter 10.2 • Comprehension • Reference and inference • Reading • Gaze duration • Just & Carpenter model • Dual route model • Orthography • Shallow / deep orthography Study Questions. • Describe the two routes for word naming. What neuropsychological evidence supports this distinction?

3. Comprehension • Reference and Inference • Reference - alluding to a concept by using another name. • E.g., Anaphoric reference - using a pronoun. John bought a computer that he liked. • Inference - process by which the reader/listener draws connections between concepts, determines the referents of words, and derives conclusions. • Implications - an intended referent in an utterance/sentence that is not explicitly stated. • E.g., I say to my Psych 220 class: The final exam is three hours long, and you will need that time. • I am making an implication • Students have to make the inference!

4. Comprehension • Reference and Inference • Types of reference • Direct - • Identity John bought a computer. The computer was on sale. • Synonym John bought a computer. The PC was on sale. • Pronoun John bought a computer. It was on sale. • Set membership John looked at three computers. He decided to buy the Macintosh. • Epithet John bought a computer. The stupid thing won’t boot.

5. Comprehension • Reference and Inference • Types of reference • Indirect (by association) • Necessary parts • John bought a computer. The keyboard does not work. • Probable parts • John bought a computer. The dual intel core is very fast. • Inducible parts • John bought a computer. The sales person gave him a good price. • Indirect (characterization) - • Necessary roles • I taught my class yesterday. I started at 2:20. • Optional roles • I taught my class yesterday. The projector was not working.

6. Comprehension • Reference and Inference • Bridging(Clark, 1977) - The processes underlying reference, implication, and inference. • I.e., the process of constructing a connection between concepts. • An intended implication and inference is authorized • An unauthorized implication and inference is unintended. • That dress does wonders for your figure! • Inferences during comprehension • Inferences can range from direct to remote • Marge went into her office. It was very dirty • Marge went into her office. The floor was very dirty • Marge went into her office. The African violet had bloomed

7. Comprehension • Reference and Inference • Extent of drawing inferences • Minimalist approach • We draw inferences online only to the extent that the information can be retrieved automatically and to make the ‘local’ phrase coherent. • Other approaches • We draw more elaborate inferences online. • Individual differences • Inference ability/speed is related to reading ability • Working memory capacity is likely important

8. Comprehension 549 426 333 200 356 556 The handsome frog prince kissed the princess and turned her into a lily pad • Reading • Saccade: A rapid jump in eye position. • Fixations: The brief interval between saccades in which the eyes remain stationary • E.g. (Good readers)

9. Comprehension The handsome frog prince kissed the princess and turned her into a lily pad 222 133 549 426 133 633 320 456 426 550 • Reading • Regressions: Reverse saccades, which are made more frequently by poor readers. • Gaze duration: The total time spent fixating a written word including fixations following regressions. • E.g. (Poor readers)

10. Comprehension • Reading • Poor readers spend more time making regressions • Good readers vary in the length of time spent fixating a word.

11. Comprehension • Reading • Eye-mind assumption - the eyes stay fixed on a word for as long as the mind is processing it. • Immediacy assumption - readers try to interpret each content word of a text as it is encountered. • What words do we look at? • We sample 85% of content words. • We sample only 35 % of function words. • Speed reading? • How much do we take in in a fixation? • Determining the perceptual span.

12. Comprehension • Reading • The moving window technique The handsomeXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXfrog prince kisseXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXthe princess and XXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXturned her into a X

13. Comprehension • Reading • Reading speed and window size • Average reading speed: 330 wds/min. • 1 word window: 200 wds/min. • 2 word window: 300 wds/min. • 3 word window: 330 wds/min. • The perceptual span: • Is not symmetrical about fixation • 4 characters to the left, 13-14 to the right of fixation • Speed reading scams • We cannot encode an entire page in a glance. • Woody Allen’s comment

14. Comprehension 500 Low-frequency words 400 Total Gaze Duration (ms) High-frequency words 300 Medium-frequency words 200 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Word length (number of letters) • Reading • The Just & Carpenter model (1980; 1992) • Factors affecting gaze duration (1983) • Word length and frequency

15. Comprehension • Reading • The Just & Carpenter model (1980; 1992) • Other factors affecting gaze duration • Number of syllables • Novel word • Repeating infrequent word • Semantic-based expectation • Various error recovery • Reference and inference • Sweeping eyes to a new line • Sentence wrap-up

16. Comprehension • ReadingMusic • Rayner and Polletsek (1997) • Used a moving window to present a melody by Bartok • Compared where the eye was focused with what the hand was playing • Two other findings: • Musicians sometimes looked back • Skilled players had a larger perceptual span - 2 beats versus 0.5 beats

17. Comprehension • Reading • The dual route model of word naming • Two ways we can extract the pronunciation of a word. • Whole word: Reading by recognizing the whole word as a perceptual unit. • E.g., Have you received the following email? Date: Sun, 14 Sep 2003 21:54:36 -0300 (Atlantic Daylight Time) The phaomnneil pweor of the hmuan mnid Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a total mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Fcuknig amzanig! • Phonological (or phonetic) word recognition: Reading by computing the pronunciation of the word.

18. Comprehension Direct route/ whole word/ addressed phonology Lexicon (mental dictionary) Stored pronunciation “WORD” Assembly of Phonology Indirect route/ phonetic/ assembled phonology • Reading • The horse race model: The route that gets used is the route that completes processing first.

19. Comprehension • Reading • Evidence for two routes • Behavioural evidence: • We can name/pronounce nonwords (e.g., FRANE) • Irregular words are named more slowly (e.g., yacht) than regular words. • Interference from conflicting outputs • Pseudohomophones are named more quickly than nonwords BRANE vs. FRANE

20. Comprehension • Reading • Evidence for two routes • Behavioural evidence: • Spelling to sound regularity • Have vs. gave • > Interacts with word frequency

21. Comprehension • Reading • Evidence for two routes • Behavioural evidence: • The neighbourhood regularity effect • > Nonwords with regular neighbours, • e.g., FEAL (real, seal) • > Named faster than nonwords with irregular neighbours • e.g., FEAD (bead, dead)

22. Comprehension • Reading • Neuropsychological evidence: Acquired dyslexia • Phonological (deep) dyslexia • E.g., “T.M.” • Cannot read pronounceable nonwords • Can read about 32% of words tested on • p + l + u + s - about 4% • Abbreviations: e.g., FBI - 48% vs. fbi - 3% • Might read “yacht” as “ship” or “boat” • The phonetic (assembled) route has been damaged

23. Comprehension • Reading • Neuropsychological evidence: Acquired dyslexia • Surface Dyslexia • Can read pronounceable nonwords • Can read regularly pronounced words • > Cannot read irregular words • > Would read “Yacht” as “Yatched” • Whole word route has been damaged

24. Comprehension • Orthography • Languages vary in how phonemic information is presented in written language • Logographic script • One symbol per word (e.g., Chinese) • 47,000 different symbols • 3000-4000 for full literacy • Japanese Kanji • Descended from Chinese • Syllabic script • One symbol per syllable (e.g., Kana) • Hiragana - Modern cursive • Katakana - Loan words, onomatopoeia

25. Comprehension Kana: hiragana (left) and Katakana (right) • Orthography • Languages vary in how phonemic information is presented in written language

26. Comprehension • Orthography • Languages vary in how phonemic information is presented in written language • Consonantal script (AKA Abjab) • Vowel sounds not written down (Hebrew, arabic) • I.e., optional • Abugida - alphasyllabary • - Vowel notations are obligatory but secondary • - Indic scripts • Alphabetic script • One symbol (grapheme) per sound (phoneme; e.g. English) • - Vowels are equal citizens

27. Comprehension • Orthography • Shallow and deep orthographies • Transparent alphabet scripts • A.K.A. Shallow othographies • E.g., Serbo-Croatian • Non-transparent scripts • A.K.A. Deep orthographies • E.g., English • • ghoti • - pronounced fish (rough, women, nation) • • The grapheme ‘ea’ can be pronounced 12 ways. • • There are 100 ways to spell /e/ (as in way, or weigh, or whey)

28. Comprehension • Orthography • Shallow and deep orthographies • Learning to read: Two factors • Orthographic depth and syllable complexity > English & Dutch most difficult to learn (deep) > French & Portuguese less difficult (shallow, complex syllables) > Italian is easiest to learn (shallow, simple syllable) • Reading logographic scripts • Most symbols contain radical (meaning) and phonological cues • > Phonemic problems are relatively rare