Welcome to Psycholinguistics, a course in which we will examine and seek to understand the interplay of cognitive psychology and linguistics.
If you would like (for some inane or perhaps insane reason), here is the course syllabus for your reading pleasure. Of course, I reserve the right to amend it, so please treat this as a guideline.
In my courses I seldom use textbooks, and in the present course we will also have no textbook. Class material will be available here, on Dropbox, and on Google Drive; feel free to download, save, print, or otherwise use it. I seldom make paper handouts, but if you prefer paper, please take care of printing files yourself.
Hereafter you will find a reasonably detailed synopsis of the respective classes we will enjoy this term.
Thus, with no further ado, here are the four units with their total of 15 sessions.
Session #1 (Tuesday, October 1) — An Overview of Psycholinguistics
In our first session we will simply be meeting, exchanging introductions, and then walking through the course syllabus (see the 'Class Material' section below)
As often happens, some text will be added here ...
Class Material for Session #1:
Session #2 (October 8) — The Role of Sound in Language
In ...
This class we'll be looking some at ...
Class Material & Homework for Session #2:
- ✔ Roediger & Gallo (2007). How to read ...
- ✔ Webpage here ...
Session #3 (October 15) — Sounds
In our class this evening, we'd like to address at least two points concerning some of
the myriad factors which affect language acquisition. The first is an attitudinal factor,
a positive, 'can-do' outlook on language learning. This outlook has gained more traction
lately with increasing interest in can-do lists to aid in assessment and motivation of
L2 learners.
The second is, for lack of a more precise word or phrase, the innate ability to acquire additional languages. With a bit of effort we can find anecdotes of polyglot language learners that have acquired multiple languages (some of whom acquired dozens!).
The third factor is the role of chemicals in facilitating language acquisition. Now you might question whether this is a serious notion, but some support certainly exists for
Class Material & Homework:
- Kuhl et al. (1992). Linguistic experience alters ...
- Werker et al. (1981). Developmental aspects of ...
- Saffran et al. (1996). Statistical learning by ...
Session #4 (October 22) — Words and Grammar
Building on the discussion in
Some ...
Class Material & Homework:
- ✔ Weisleder & Fernald (2013). Talking to children matters
- ✔ Smith et al. (2002). Object name learning ...
Session #5 (October 29) — Those First Words
Class Material:
- ✔ Roy et al. (2015). Predicting the birth ...
- ✔ Saffron et al. (2001) The acquisition of language ...
Note that we will have no class on November 5
.Session #6 (June 13) — Memory, et al.
As mentioned in class, I have opted to revise our syllabus to allow us to explore the world of memory a bit more. For a quick look at memory, you might hazard a glance at the They Differ webpage. A second webpage with several videos by renowned academic Alan Baddeley is the aptly-titled Go Cognitive webpage.
From educational psychologist Peter Doolittle, here we have a TED Talk on "How you working memory makes sense of the world." This is well worth your time, folks.
Class Material:
- ✔ Grant (2016), Recent memory research and second language acquisition
- ✔ Silva (2017), Memory's intricate web (perhaps just skim this unless you have lots of free time!)
- ✔ (Optional) Yuste & Church (2014), The new century of the brain
Session #7 (November 12) — Mindfulness, Noticing, & Meditation
The obvious ...
Here you'll find ...
Class Material:
- ✔ Reading #1
- ✔ Reading #2
- ✔ Reading #3
Understanding Language(s)—This unit deals with the ongoing, daily process of comprehending language.
Session #8 (November 19) — Spoken Language Comprehension
We begin with the (generally) instantaneous activity of spoken language.
Material here ... coming soon ...
Class Material:
- ✔ Tenenhaus et al. (1995). Integration of ...
- ✔ Spivey & Marian (1999). Cross talk between ...
Session #9 (November 26) — Reading
This pair of ...
For our enjoyment ...
Class Material:
- ✔ Rayner et al. (2001). How psychological science ...
- ✔ Chang et al. (2020). The relationship between oral language and reading instruction ...
Session #10— Modeling Language Knowledge
This ...
For our enjoyment ...
Class Material:
- ✔ Riordan & Jones (2011). Redundancy ...
- ✔ Chrisiansen & Chater (2001). Connectionist ...
Session #11— Differences across Speakers
Thought-provoking text here.
Class Material:
- ✔ Pinker (1994; Chapter 3)
- ✔ Loftus & Palmer (1974)
Session #12 (December 17) — Topic here
Inspiring text here.
Class Material:
- ✔ Kramsch (2011). Are you another ...
- ✔ Bialystok (2017). The bilingual ...
- Kroll et al. (2012). Juggling two ...
Session #13 (December 24) — Topic here
Fascinating text here.
Session #14 (January 7, 2020) — Topic here
Text here, of course.
Session #15 (January 14) — Topic here
In this, our final session (how sad!), I'd like to ...
Additional (and very optional)Class Material:
- ✔ Lillard, A. S. (2016). Montesorri: The science behind the genius.
- ✔ Baldwin, D. A. (1993). Early referential understanding: Infants' ability to recognize referential acts for what they are. Developmental Psychology, 29(5), 832-843.
- ✔ Clark, H. H. (1997). Dogmas of understanding. Discourse Processes, 23(3), 567-598.
- ✔ Clark, H. H. (1996). Using language. 1996. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge), 952, 274-296.
- ✔ De?k, G. O., Krasno, A. M., Triesch, J., Lewis, J., & Sepeta, L. (2014). Watch the hands: Infants can learn to follow gaze by seeing adults manipulate objects. Developmental Science, 17(2), 270-281.
- ✔ Frank, M. C., Braginsky, M., Yurovsky,D., & Marchman, V. A. (2016). Wordbank: An open repository for developmental vocabulary data. Journal of Child Language.
- ✔ Gentner, D. (2003). Language in mind: Advances in the study of language and thought. MIT Press.
- ✔ Hart, B., & Risley, T. R. (1995). Meaningful differences in the everyday experience of young American children. Paul H Brookes Publishing.
- ✔ James, K. H., & Engelhardt, L. (2012). The effects of handwriting experience on functional brain development in pre-literate children. Trends in Neuroscience and Education, 1(1), 32-42.
- ✔ Johnson, J. S., & Newport, E. L. (1989). Critical period effects in second language learning: The influence of maturational state on the acquisition of English as a second language. Cognitive Psychology, 21(1), 60-99.
- ✔ Kaminski, J., Call, J., & Fischer, J. (2004). Word learning in a domestic dog: evidence for" fast mapping". Science, 304(5677), 1682-1683.
- ✔ Kroll, J. F., & De Groot, A. M. (Eds.). (2005). Handbook of bilingualism: Psycholinguistic approaches. Oxford University Press.
- ✔ Landauer, T. K., & Dumais, S. T. (1997). A solution to Plato's problem: The latent semantic analysis theory of acquisition, induction, and representation of knowledge. Psychological Review, 104(2), 211.
- ✔ Lew-Williams, C., & Fernald, A. (2007). Young children learning Spanish make rapid use of grammatical gender in spoken word recognition. Psychological Science, 18(3), 193-198.
- ✔ Lupyan, G., Rakison, D. H., & McClelland, J. L. (2007). Language is not just for talking: Redundant labels facilitate learning of novel categories. Psychological Science, 18(12), 1077-1083.
- ✔ Lupyan, G. (2008). From chair to "chair": a representational shift account of object labeling effects on memory. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 137(2), 348.
- ✔ Montag, J.L., Jones, M.N., & Smith, L.B. (2015). The words children hear picture books and the statistics for language learning. Psychological Science 26(9), 1489-1496.
- ✔ Oller, D. K., Niyogi, P., Gray, S., Richards, J. A., Gilkerson, J., Xu, D., ... & Warren, S. F. (2010). Automated vocal analysis of naturalistic recordings from children with autism, language delay, and typical development. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 107(30), 13354-13359.
- ✔ Ramscar, M. (2002). The role of meaning in inflection: Why the past tense does not require a rule. Cognitive Psychology, 45(1), 45-94.
- ✔ Seidenberg, M. S., & Plaut, D. C. (2014). Quasiregularity and its discontents: The legacy of the past tense debate. Cognitive Science, 38(6), 1190-1228.
- ✔ Vales, C., & Smith, L. B. (2015). Words, shape, visual search and visual working memory in 3-year-old children. Developmental Science, 18(1), 65-79.
- ✔ Wolf, M., Gottwald, S., Galyean, T., Morris, R., & Breazeal, C. (2014). The Reading Brain, Global Literacy, and the Eradication of Poverty. Bread and Brain, Education and Poverty.
- ✔ Yu, C., & Smith, L. B. (2012). Embodied attention and word learning by toddlers. Cognition, 125(2), 244-262.