PSY 369: Psycholinguistics: Introductions & Brief History of Psycholinguistics
PSY 369: Psycholinguistics: Introductions & Brief History of Psycholinguistics
PSY 369: Psycholinguistics: Introductions & Brief History of Psycholinguistics
Introductions &
Brief History of Psycholinguistics
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What is “psycholinguistics”?
What is “psycholinguistics”?
How are these two going
to communicate?
• What are the
“issues” going to be?
Knives R us
What is “psycholinguistics”?
Psycho Linguistics
Psycho Linguistics
Mental Processes Linguistic Theory
- Short Term Memory - Phonology
- Long Term Memory - Morphology
- Encoding - Syntax
- Retrieval - Semantics
- Mental
Representations - Rules
Week 3 Week 2
Psycholinguistics : A brief history
1900 10 20 50 60 70 80 90 2000
Pre-psycholinguistics:
The ancient Greeks:
• Noticed that brain damage could cause aphasia
• Aristotle: objects of the world exist
independent of language and that definite
words are subsequently allied to these objects
Psycholinguistics : A brief history
1900 10 20 50 60 70 80 90 2000
Pre-psycholinguistics:
Paul Broca (1861):
• described a patient who could say only one
word..."tan."
• damage to part of the left frontal cortex
("Broca's Area”)
Psycholinguistics : A brief history
1900 10 20 50 60 70 80 90 2000
Pre-psycholinguistics:
Karl Wernicke (1876):
• Found that damage to posterior part of the
temporal lobe caused a different kind of
language problems.
• Wernicke's Area
Psycholinguistics : A brief history
1900 10 20 50 60 70 80 90 2000
Pre-psycholinguistics (1800s):
Philosophers of Language:
• Wittgenstein: underlying logic of language
• Russell: reference and language universals
• Frege: sense and reference (meaning)
psycINFO 16
Pre 1920
1900 10 20 50 60 70 80 90 2000
Pre-psycholinguistics:
Merringer & Meyer (1895):
• Speech errors reveal properties of linguistic
system
psycINFO 16
Pre 1920
1900 10 20 50 60 70 80 90 2000
Pre-psycholinguistics:
Wilhelm Wundt:
• Physiologist
• Established the first psychological laboratory
• Wrote about language
• Early theory of language production
psycINFO 16
Pre 1920
1900 10 20 50 60 70 80 90 2000
Pre-psycholinguistics:
Ferdinand de Saussure:
• Linguist
• Separation of historical linguistics and
descriptive linguistics
psycINFO 3990
1920-50
1900 10 20 50 60 70 80 90 2000
Pre-psycholinguistics:
• From the 1920’s to the mid 1950’s Psychology was
dominated by behaviorism
• John B. Watson (1920): Is thinking merely the
action of language mechanisms?
• Leonard Bloomfield (1935): Language
psycINFO 2911
1951-60
1900 10 20 50 60 70 80 90 2000
1900 10 20 50 60 70 80 90 2000
1900 10 20 50 60 70 80 90 2000
1900 10 20 50 60 70 80 90 2000
1900 10 20 50 60 70 80 90 2000
1900 10 20 50 60 70 80 90 2000
1900 10 20 50 60 70 80 90 2000
Psycholinguistics (60s):
George Miller
• Cognitive psychologist
• Collaborated with Chomsky
• Beginnings of the search for the psychological
reality of linguistic rules
psycINFO 4221
1961-70
1900 10 20 50 60 70 80 90 2000
Psycholinguistics (60s):
The search for psychological reality of
syntactic transformations begins
• e.g., studies by Bever, Fodor, and Garrett
psycINFO 8137
1971-80
1900 10 20 50 60 70 80 90 2000
1900 10 20 50 60 70 80 90 2000
Psycholinguistics (70s):
Psycholinguistic research begins to drift away from linguistics:
• Mounting evidence against psychological reality of
transformation
• New competing linguistic theories (e.g., generative semantics)
and rapid change to existing theories
psycINFO 8137
1971-80
1900 10 20 50 60 70 80 90 2000
Psycholinguistics (mid70s):
Psycholinguistics without linguistics:
• Began to shift focus away from syntax
• Higher levels of comprehension (e.g., meaning and
discourse)
• Lower levels: word recognition and sub-lexical perception
psycINFO 16,838
1981-90
1900 10 20 50 60 70 80 90 2000
Psycholinguistics (80s):
Psycholinguistics further splits:
• More drifting away from linguistic, focusing on cognitive
psychology (i.e. incorporation of more information processing
ideas)
• Splits within psycholinguistics: experimental psycholinguistics
and developmental psycholinguistics
psycINFO 16,838
1981-90
1900 10 20 50 60 70 80 90 2000
1900 10 20 50 60 70 80 90 2000