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Mankin, Jennifer Lauren. "The psycholinguistics of synaesthesia." Thesis, University of Sussex, 2018. http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/76640/.
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To most people, a question like “What colour is the letter A?” may seem nonsensical, but to a grapheme-colour synaesthete, each letter and word has an automatically evoked colour sensation associated with it. This thesis asks whether the synaesthetic colours for letters and words are shaped by the same influences that inform the typical use of language – that is, if grapheme-colour synaesthesia is fundamentally psycholinguistic in nature. If this is the case, the colour experiences of synaesthetes for letters and words can also be used to investigate long-standing questions about how language acquisition and processing work for everyone. This thesis addresses two aspects of the psycholinguistic roots of synaesthesia: structure/morphology and meaning/semantics. The first two studies on word structure collected colour responses from synaesthetes for compound words (e.g. rainbow), the constituent morphemes of those words separately (e.g. rain and bow), and the letters that in turn form those words (e.g. R, A, B, etc.). These studies showed that synaesthetic word colouring does indeed encode linguistic properties such as word frequency and morphological structure. Furthermore, both linguistic and colour elements of words were important in determining their synaesthetic colour. The second two studies turned to the semantic aspect of language, asking how the meanings associated with words (e.g. red, fire) and even individual letters (e.g. A, Q) can influence the colours that a synaesthete experiences for them. The first of these studies indicated that the synaesthetic colour for a word like red or fire was measurably influenced by the colour that word typically evokes (e.g. the red of red and the orange of fire). The second showed that trends in letter-colour associations in large-scale studies (e.g. A is typically red) may be rooted in connections to particular words (e.g. A is red because A is for apple and apples are red). Overall, this thesis shows that both word structure and meaning have a systematic, measureable effect on synaesthetic colour, which allows these colours to then be used as a new tool to investigate psycholinguistic questions.
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Горлатова, О. М. "Psycholinguistics, development, modern issues." Thesis, Київський національний університет технологій та дизайну, 2020. https://er.knutd.edu.ua/handle/123456789/15234.
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Blohm, Stefan [Verfasser]. "Literary Psycholinguistics and the Poem / Stefan Blohm." Mainz : Universitätsbibliothek Mainz, 2020. http://d-nb.info/1204388660/34.
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Love-Geffen, Tracey E. "The processing of dependency relationships /." Diss., Connect to a 24 p. preview or request complete full text in PDF format. Access restricted to UC IP addresses, 1998. http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/ucsd/fullcit?p9904728.
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Cylke, Virginia Ann. "Language in Social Contexts: An Examination of the Effects of the Linguistic Intergroup Bias on Social Categorization and Interpersonal Behavior." Fogler Library, University of Maine, 2003. http://www.library.umaine.edu/theses/pdf/CylkeVA2003.pdf.
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Pinard, Minola. "Non-linguistic versus linguistic processes in speech perception." Thesis, McGill University, 1985. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=72057.
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Four studies were conducted in which three sets of tasks were devised which tapped in a standard format, progressively refined, nonlinguistic versus linguistic processes in speech processing. The third set of tasks gave the clearest results. In it, male and female franco-phone subjects of different ages and of varying degree of knowledge of English were tested. Three sets of consonant contrasts were used. A dichotomization into two separate processes was possible by finding expected differential patterns of development for the two tasks; we were able to postulate that the two processes were non-linguistic versus linguistic by finding expected specific patterns of development, specific patterns of sex by age similarities and differences, differential patterns of correlations between degree of bilingualism and consonant contrasts, and unexpectedly a different pattern of performance on one contrast, all according to task. The results are discussed mainly in relation to other experiments on "the phonetic mode".
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Johnson, Samantha Jayne. "Stimulus equivalence and exposure learning : a cross-disciplinary study of rapid vocabulary acquisition." Thesis, Bangor University, 2001. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.364583.
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Pinheiro, Angela M. V. "Reading and spelling development in Brazilian Portuguese." Thesis, University of Dundee, 1989. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.283860.
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Nordmann, Emily. "The nature of lexical representation in language production." Thesis, University of Aberdeen, 2013. http://digitool.abdn.ac.uk:80/webclient/DeliveryManager?pid=192283.
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This thesis presents an investigation of the three prominent models of language production: Levelt, Roelofs and Meyers (1999) two-stage account; Dell’s (1986) interactive account; and Caramazza’s (1997) Independent Network model. In particular, the thesis investigates four questions. First, is the activation of semantic, syntactic, and phonological representations serial or parallel? Secondly, is the flow of activation strictly modular, or is it cascading? Thirdly, how does the production system deal with the lemma level/syntactic representation of entries that whilst fixed, are larger than single words, e.g., idioms and fixed expressions? Finally, at what time point does the activation of syntactic information occur? Chapter 2 presents a tip-of-the-tongue (TOT) experiment in which support for cascading activation is found. Chapter 3 continues the use of the TOT paradigm to investigate the representation and a homophone advantage suggestive of shared phonological representations was found. Chapter 4 extends the TOT paradigm to the investigation of idiomatic expressions and the results suggest that both the literal and figurative meanings of an idiom are active during production – a finding that is best explained through bi-directional spreading activation. Chapter 5 continues the investigation of idiomatic expressions through a norming study and the results indicate that both native and non-native speakers can make fine-grained distinctions regarding idioms, but that this is heavily influenced by familiarity. Chapter 6 uses the picture-word interference paradigm to investigate the representation of count and mass nouns. The findings suggest that the activation of syntactic information is an early process and that mass nouns require the activation of an additional feature compared to count nouns. Finally, Chapter 8 presents the thesis conclusions, future directions for research, and argues that the evidence presented in the experimental chapters is strongly supportive of the interactive account of language production proposed by Dell (1986).
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Kearns, Ruth Katherine. "Prelexical speech processing by mono- and bilinguals." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 1994. https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/283696.
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Morris, Sharon Mary. "Shifting eyes : self-representation in words and images, re-reading Freud through the semiotics of C.S. Peirce, with particular reference to the work of poet H.D. and artist Claude Cahun." Thesis, University College London (University of London), 2000. http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/46810/.
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'Shifting Eyes', presents a re-reading of Freud’s structural theories of the self, through the semiotics of C.S. Peirce. In place of the self split between unconscious representations and the syntax of speech, Peirce’s general sign theory provides an evolutionary account of symbol development within a trichotomy of sign-object relations, icon, index and symbol, as opposed to interpretations of Freud using the linguistic sign which reify the split subject and assimilate unconscious processes to the tropes of language. Peirce’s sign-interpretant relation, is used to re-describe Freud’s account of the shift from narcissism to object relations, from the primary iconic dyad to the subject constructed through the symbol of sexual difference. One class of icons, the hypoicon, is evaluated as a representation of the subject, since the hypoicon, unlike the symbol, does not uphold contradiction. Metaphor, as hypoiconic Third, is compared with Freud’s account of the structure of identification, both in terms of ego development and dream formation. The second part of the thesis uses these concepts to interpret the work of author H.D. and artist-writer Claude Cahun. H.D.’s œuvre - poetry, novels, memoirs and autobiography - lay bare the structure of the subject through the semiotics of the text, in particular transference and the act of naming. The poetry demonstrates the boundary between ego and world, myth and ideals of the ego, as the semiotics of identification. Cahun’s photographic self-portraits raise questions of the relation between body-image and narcissism, ideals and the subject of sexual difference. The last chapter concentrates on 'Aveux non avenus', (1930a) a work which integrates text and image using the principles of collage, juxtaposing photomontages with fragments of dream, fantasy, polemic and fiction as an extension of self-representation. In conclusion, the signifying self, as hypoiconic Third, is related to the body, re-posing the question of desire.
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Yang, Wei. "Speech errors in Chinese : a psycholinguistic study." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1997. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk2/ftp03/NQ32774.pdf.
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Morgan, J. Arianna. "Explorations into the Psycholinguistic Validity of Extended Collocations." PDXScholar, 2014. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/2005.
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This study tests the hypothesis that frequency and collocational association make independent contributions to the processing time of English multiword collocational, phrases for L1 and L2 English speakers. The results suggest that these constructs do play a role in the processing of 4-word, corpus-extracted phrases. In this sample, L1 speakers demonstrated reduced processing time for both highly frequent and highly associated phrases, while L2 speakers demonstrated reduced processing time for highly frequent phrases. Evidence exists in the data that highly proficient L2 speakers may develop similar patterns of reduced processing time as L1 speakers. Additionally, some L1 speakers did not show the sensitive to higher levels of association typical of this group. Understanding these contributions has the potential to elucidate the most useful targets of phrasal instruction for ESOL students and the psychological mechanisms of associative learning.
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Iyer, Gowri Krovi. "Cross-linguistic studies of lexical access and processing in monolingual English and bilingual Hindī-English speakers." Connect to a 24 p. preview or request complete full text in PDF format. Access restricted to SDSU campuses, 2006. http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/ucsd/fullcit?p3237601.
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Berkum, Johannes Josephus Augustinus van. "The psycholinguistics of grammatical gender : studies in language comprehension and production /." Nijmegen : Max Planck Instituut voor Psycholinguïstiek, 1996. http://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb37535829z.
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Patterson, Clare. "The role of structural and discourse-level cues during pronoun resolution." Phd thesis, Universität Potsdam, 2013. http://opus.kobv.de/ubp/volltexte/2014/7128/.
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Pronoun resolution normally takes place without conscious effort or awareness, yet the processes behind it are far from straightforward. A large number of cues and constraints have previously been recognised as playing a role in the identification and integration of potential antecedents, yet there is considerable debate over how these operate within the resolution process. The aim of this thesis is to investigate how the parser handles multiple antecedents in order to understand more about how certain information sources play a role during pronoun resolution. I consider how both structural information and information provided by the prior discourse is used during online processing. This is investigated through several eye tracking during reading experiments that are complemented by a number of offline questionnaire experiments.
I begin by considering how condition B of the Binding Theory (Chomsky 1981; 1986) has been captured in pronoun processing models; some researchers have claimed that processing is faithful to syntactic constraints from the beginning of the search (e.g. Nicol and Swinney 1989), while others have claimed that potential antecedents which are ruled out on structural grounds nonetheless affect processing, because the parser must also pay attention to a potential antecedent’s features (e.g. Badecker and Straub 2002). My experimental findings demonstrate that the parser is sensitive to the subtle changes in syntactic configuration which either allow or disallow pronoun reference to a local antecedent, and indicate that the parser is normally faithful to condition B at all stages of processing. Secondly, I test the Primitives of Binding hypothesis proposed by Koornneef (2008) based on work by Reuland (2001), which is a modular approach to pronoun resolution in which variable binding (a semantic relationship between pronoun and antecedent) takes place before coreference. I demonstrate that a variable-binding (VB) antecedent is not systematically considered earlier than a coreference (CR) antecedent online. I then go on to explore whether these findings could be attributed to the linear order of the antecedents, and uncover a robust recency preference both online and offline. I consider what role the factor of recency plays in pronoun resolution and how it can be reconciled with the first-mention advantage (Gernsbacher and Hargreaves 1988; Arnold 2001; Arnold et al., 2007). Finally, I investigate how aspects of the prior discourse affect pronoun resolution. Prior discourse status clearly had an effect on pronoun resolution, but an antecedent’s appearance in the previous context was not always facilitative; I propose that this is due to the number of topic switches that a reader must make, leading to a lack of discourse coherence which has a detrimental effect on pronoun resolution.
The sensitivity of the parser to structural cues does not entail that cue types can be easily separated into distinct sequential stages, and I therefore propose that the parser is structurally sensitive but not modular. Aspects of pronoun resolution can be captured within a parallel constraints model of pronoun resolution, however, such a model should be sensitive to the activation of potential antecedents based on discourse factors, and structural cues should be strongly weighted.Pronomenauflösung erfolgt normalerweise scheinbar mühelos und ohne bewusste Anstrengung. Jedoch ist die Verarbeitung von pronominalen Referenzen aus linguistischer Sicht ein hochkomplexer Prozess. Durch unterschiedliche wissenschaftliche Studien wurden bereits zahlreiche Faktoren ermittelt, die bei der Pronomenauflösung eine Rolle spielen, allerdings herrscht weitgehend noch keine Einigkeit darüber, wie genau diese Faktoren die Verarbeitung von Pronomen beeinflussen. Ziel dieser Dissertation ist es zu untersuchen, wie der Leser/Hörer mit Pronomen umgeht, denen mehrere Antezedenten zugeordnet werden können, um zu verstehen, welche Rolle bestimmte Informationsquellen in der Verarbeitung von Pronomen spielen. Besondere Beachtung findet dabei, wie strukturelle Eigenschaften sowie Informationen aus dem vorangegangenen Diskurs für die Suche nach einem passenden Antezedenten benutzt werden. Die angewandte Untersuchungsmethode der vorliegenden Dissertation ist Eye-tracking during reading, ergänzt mit verschiedenen offline-Fragebögen. Die Experimente erforschen die Rolle der folgenden Aspekte in der Verarbeitung von Pronomen: Prinzip B der Bindungstheorie (Chomsky 1981; 1986), Koreferenz und Variablenbindung laut der Primitives of Binding Hypothese (Reuland 2001, Koornneef 2008), Antezedentenreihenfolge im Satz, und Diskursstatus des Antezedents. Obwohl es zeigt sich, dass der Hörer/Leser sensibel für subtile Veränderungen in der syntaktischen Konfiguration ist, wie z.B. für die Reihenfolge der Antezedenten im Satz und für den Diskursstatus des Antezedenten, gibt es keinen Nachweis dafür, dass Variablenbindung zeitlich vor Koreferenz erfolgt. Einige Aspekte der Auflösung pronominaler Referenzen können in einem parallel constraints model erfasst werden, allerdings sollte so ein Modell strukturelle Informationen stark gewichten und sensitiv sein für die Aktivierung potenzieller Antezedenten aufgrund von Diskursfaktoren.
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Patterson, Robert W. "The effects of inaccurate speech information on performance in a visual search and identification task." Thesis, Georgia Institute of Technology, 1987. http://hdl.handle.net/1853/30481.
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Collard, Philip. "Disfluency and listeners' attention : an investigation of the immediate and lasting effects of hesitations in speech." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/3234.
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Hesitations in speech marked by pauses, fillers such as er, and prolongations of words are remarkably common in most spontaneous speech. Experimental evidence indicates that they affect both the processing of speech and the lasting representation of the spoken material. One theory as to the mechanisms that underlie these effects is that filled pauses heighten listeners' attention to upcoming speech. For example, in the utterance: (1) She hated the CD, but then she's never liked my taste in er music The hesitation marked by the filler er would heighten listeners' attention to the post-dis fluent material (music) which would then be processed and represented differently to an equivalent stimulus in a passage of fluent speech. The thesis examines this proposition in the context of an explicit de finition of attention. The first half of the work investigates whether hesitations heighten two different aspects of listeners' attention: these are the immediate engagement of attention to post-dis fluent stimuli at the point they are encountered, and the continued attention to the representation of stimuli after they are encountered. In experiment 1, a speech `oddball' paradigm is used to show that event-related potentials (ERPs) associated with attention (MMN and P3) are affected by a preceding hesitation, indicating an immediate effect of hesitations on listeners overt attention. Experiments 2 and 3 use behavioural responses and eye-movements measures during a change-detection paradigm. These experiments show that there is also an effect on the listeners' attention to the post-dis fluent material after the initial presentation of the utterance. The second half of the thesis concerns itself with the timecourse of the attentional effects. It addresses questions such as: how long-lived is the attentional heightening and what is the attentional heightening trigger? Experiments 4{7 explore the relationship between the filler er and periods of silent pause that surround it. Behavioural (exp. 4{6) and ERP (exp. 7) results show that while extending the period of silence after the filler er does not affect the immediate engagement of attention, it will affect subsequent attention to the post-disfluent material: constituents that are not immediately preceded by the filler er are not attended to in an enhanced way. Together, these experiments confirm the proposition that hesitations heighten listeners' attention to upcoming speech. The thesis outlines the ways in which the components of this attentional heightening are differentially affected by interaction between the content and timing of the hesitations encountered. Attention has an important role to play in the processing of any stimulus. Using disfluency as a test case, this thesis illuminates its importance in language comprehension.
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Maier, Robert M. "Structural interference from the source language : a psycholinguistic investigation of syntactic processes in non-professional translation." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/3406.
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This thesis explores cross-linguistic structural phenomena in the language production of bilinguals in the specific context of translation. In recent years, cross-linguistic phenomena on the level of syntax have become an increasingly prominent issue in psycholinguistic research, and are a well-known feature in language productions of multilinguals, from language learners to translators. The work presented in this thesis takes current perspectives from psycholinguistics (discussed in Chapter 2) as its foundation; impulses from research on bilingualism and advanced Second Language Acquisition (Chapter 3) and Translation and Interpreting (Chapter 4) allow to develop a specific approach to translation as a special instance of bilingual production, elementary concepts of which are available to all bilingual speakers. On this basis, an experimental paradigm for psycholinguistic research into structural phenomena of translation is developed and refined (Chapters 5 and 6) that allows to access both off-line and on-line data from simple text-to-speech translations. Experiment 1 (Chapter 5) confirms the existence of priming-like, on-line facilitation in translations where source and target sentences are structurally matched. Experiment 2 (Chapter 6) obtains a structural priming effect from sources where several target structures are available, and refines material specifications for the experimental paradigm and analysis techniques for on-line data. In Experiment 3 (Chapter 7), off-line structural priming is observed in translations into and out of L2. The corresponding on-line facilitation of primed productions, however, is discovered only in translations from L1 to L2, a finding that agrees with predictions from research in L2 acquisition and translation. On this basis, Experiment 3 is repeated in Experiment 4 (Chapter 8) with a modification to materials so that an additional restructuring operation becomes necessary. Although structural priming is still evident in translations from L1 to L2, on-line facilitation is not, suggesting that syntactic operations do not add to each other but are processed in one go. Results are discussed comprehensively (in Chapter 9) with respect to their entailments for adjacent fields of research, in particular with a view to theories of syntactic production and directionality in translation. Several possibilities for future applications of the approach are proposed.
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Huxley, Clare J. "Choice of syntactic structure during language production : the production of unbounded dependencies." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/3313.
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During language production, conceptual messages are encoded into a target language and articulated. Existing models of language production assume several stages of processing including a conceptual level, a level where lexical selection and syntactic processing occurs and a level where morphological and phonological features are added ready for production (e.g. Levelt et al., 1999). Previous research has considered how lexical and syntactic information could be stored via lemma (Kempen & Huijbers, 1983), syntactic nodes (Levelt at el., 1999) and combinatorial nodes (Pickering & Braingan, 1998), but little is understood about how syntactic structures are selected. This thesis examines how constituent structures are selected by investigating choice of structure in unbounded dependencies such as Which jug with the red spots is the nun giving the monk? and how this is affected by factors such as verb-subcategorisation preferences and global sentence structure complexity. A series of language production experiments investigate how global structure complexity and verb-subcategoricatisaion preferences affect choice of syntactic structure at the clause level in unbounded dependencies. A picture description task reveals an unusual preference for the dispreferred passive voice structure as a result of global structural complexity. Sentence recall experiments demonstrate that both global structural complexity and verb-subcategorisation preferences can affect choice of structure and that competition between these factors decides the final structure. Finally, syntactic priming experiments show that processing mechanisms are shared between simple matrix clause structures and unbounded dependency clause structures, but that the influence of these shared mechanisms vary between the different structure types. This could be attributed to a modal of processing where choice of structure is decided by competition between structure representations which are influenced by different factors in different global syntactic conditions. The results suggest that choice of syntactic structure is decided through competition between possible structures. These possible structures may receive further activation or inhibition from other factors such as global structural complexity or verb-subcategorisation preferences and thematic fit. Global structural complexity may influence structure preferences through increased processing load or through attempts to integrate the clause structure with another global structure. Thematic role arguments may influence structure through a preference that syntactic roles fit with specified thematic roles. (e.g. experiencer as subject). This model assumes parallel processing of possible structures and individual structures within a complex larger structure. It also assumes an incremental model of processing which attempts to integrate structures as soon as possible.
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Chen, Yuanyuan. "The modulation of spatio-temporal brain dynamics in visual word recognition by psycholinguistic variables and tasks studies using EEG/MEG and fMRI." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2013. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.607863.
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Ortu, Daniele. "Exploring the nature of neural correlates of language, attention and memory : reliability and validity studies of event related potentials." Thesis, University of Stirling, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/1893/11003.
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Comparing data from different subfields of research may help in understanding emerging patterns and refining interpretations. This is especially true in neuroscience because brain functions can be studied at multiple levels of analysis, spatially and temporally, and with a variety of complementary measurement techniques. Within the ERP domain, several subfields of research have evolved over time, typically reflecting the specific time-window of interest and brain function investigated. The current investigation focused on three widely studied ERP effects reflecting a variety of key brain functions: the N400 effect, the P3b effect and the Left Parietal effect. The N400 effect has attracted researchers interested in language processing, the P3b effect researchers interested in attentional processes and the Left Parietal effect researchers focused on episodic recollection. Even though the ERP technology constitutes a common thread across these subfields, there is often a lack of communication across groups of researchers. The literatures on the N400 effect, P3b effect and Left Parietal effect have been written by relatively non-overlapping groups of researchers, and as such the kind of analysis carried out in the current thesis is not a common one, as it compares effects investigated within different subfields. Specifically, the approach taken in the current thesis involves assessment of the comparative reliability of the three effects of interest, and at the same time allowing refining their validity. Results showed that all three effects were found to be reliable at the group level and the N400 effect and the P3b effect were also found to be reliable at the single participant level. A correlational analysis involving all three effects yielded a significant correlation between the P3b and the Left Parietal effect but not between the P3b and the N400, or between the Left Parietal effect and the N400. Following up on the significant correlation, suggesting a convergence between the P3b effect and the Left Parietal effect, a probability manipulation of the Left Parietal effect was carried out to investigate if the old/new effect is sensitive to probability changes similarly to the P3b. The size of the Left Parietal effect was found to be sensitive to the relative probability of old and new items, in a manner consistent with the P3b effect‟s sensitivity to probability manipulations. The results pointing to a relationship between the P3b effect and the Left Parietal effect suggest that attentional processes sensitive to probability may temporally overlap and confound memory processes as indexed by the Left Parietal effect. The N400 effect, in the initial correlational study, was found to be independent from attentional processes as reflected by the P3b, and from episodic recollection as indexed by the Left Parietal effect. The validity of the N400 effect as a measure of semantic processing was then assessed by manipulating associative relationships while keeping constant semantic relationships, with results showing that the effect can be clearly modulated by associative changes when semantic relatedness is kept constant. The same association norms were then used in an old/new recognition experiment to assess if the Bilateral-Frontal old/new effect behaves in reaction to association relationships similarly or differently from the N400, in the attempt of assessing if the N400 is only a measure of associative relationships or also a measure of the process of familiarity. The observed pattern suggests independence between the N400 and the Bilateral Frontal effect. Overall, the N400 effect was found to be independent from memory processes occurring in the same time window, but, contrary to the dominant interpretation of the effect, the effect was modulated by changes in association strength while keeping semantic relatedness constant, suggesting that the N400 effect may be sensitive to a contiguity-based associative learning process not constrained to the linguistic domain.
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Webster, Gabriel. "Toward a psychologically and computationally adequate model of speech perception /." Thesis, Connect to this title online; UW restricted, 2002. http://hdl.handle.net/1773/8409.
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Serafini, Sandra. "Functional neuroanatomy during language processing : correspondence of cortical stimulation mapping, fMRI, PEPSI, and ERP during a visual object naming task /." Thesis, Connect to this title online; UW restricted, 2002. http://hdl.handle.net/1773/8235.
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Lin, Zi Qi. "Indentidades sociais na organização do discurso de uma jovem imigrante Chinesa no Brasil :transcontextos entre a China e o Brasil." Thesis, University of Macau, 2018. http://umaclib3.umac.mo/record=b3953461.
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Bailes, Rachael Louise. "An evolutionary psycholinguistic approach to the pragmatics of reference." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/22978.
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Pragmatics concerns the material function of language use in the world, and thus touches on profound questions about the relationship between our cognition and the environments in which we operate. Both psycholinguistics and evolutionary linguistics have afforded greater attention to pragmatics in recent years. Though the potential of evolutionary psycholinguistics has been noted for over twenty-five years (e.g. Tooby & Cosmides, 1990; Scott-Phillips, 2010a), there has arguably been little dialogue between these two fields of study. This thesis explicitly acknowledges and investigates the adaptationist nature of functional claims in psycholinguistics, and attempts to demonstrate that psycholinguistic inquiry can provide evidence that is relevant to theories of how the cognitive architecture of linguistic communication evolved. Chapter two reviews a broad polarisation in the pragmatic and psycholinguistic literature concerning the relative roles of linguistic convention and contextual information in comprehension. It makes explicit the theoretical approaches that reliably give rise to these polar positions across scholarly domains. It goes on to map each model of comprehension to the adaptationist particulars it may entail, and in doing so illustrates two different pictures of how linguistic cognition has developed over phylogeny. The Social Adaptation Hypothesis (SAH) holds that linguistic comprehension is performed by relevance-oriented inferential mechanisms that have been selected for by a social environment (i.e. inference-using conspecifics). In particular, the SAH holds that linguistic conventions are attended to in the same way as other ostensive stimuli and contextual information, and because of their relevance to communicative interactions. The Linguistic Adaptation Hypothesis (LAH) holds that linguistic comprehension is performed by specialised cognition that has been selected for by a linguistic environment (i.e. language-using conspecifics) that was established subsequent to, and as a consequence of, the emergence of inferential communication. In particular, the LAH holds that linguistic conventions are a privileged domain of input for the comprehension system. The plausibility and congruence of both accounts with the current state of knowledge about the evolutionary picture necessitates empirical psycholinguistic evidence. The remainder of the thesis presents a series of experiments investigating referential expressions relevant to the contrastive predictions of these two adaptationist accounts. The broad question that covers all of these experiments is: how sensitive is the comprehension process to linguistic input qua linguistic input, relative to various other grades of relevant contextual information? Chapter three presents a reaction time experiment that uses speaker-specific facts about referents as referring expressions, in a conversational precedent paradigm. The experiment measures the relative sensitivity of comprehension processing to the knowledge states of speakers and the consistent use of linguistic labels, and finds greater sensitivity to linguistic labels. Chapter four introduces a further contextual variable into this paradigm, in the form of culturally copresent associations between labels and referents. The experiment presented in this chapter compares the relative sensitivity of processing to culturally copresent common ground, the privileged knowledge state of speakers, and the consistent use of linguistic labels. The results indicated greater sensitivity to linguistic labels overall, and were consistent with the LAH. Chapter five turns to visual context as a constraint on reference, and presents two pairs of experiments. Experiments 3 and 4 investigate the comprehension of referring expressions across congruous, incongruous, and abstract visual contexts. The experiments measured reaction time as subjects were prompted to identify constituent parts of tangram pictures. The results indicated a sensitivity to the visual context and the linguistic labels, and are broadly consistent with the SAH. If comprehension is characterised by particular sensitivities, we may expect speakers to produce utterances that lend themselves well to how hearers process them. Experiments 5 and 6 use a similar tangram paradigm to elicit referring expressions from speakers for component parts of tangrams. The experiments measure the consistency of produced labels for the same referents across visual contexts of varied congruity. The results indicated some methodological limitations of the tangram paradigm for the study of repeated reference across contexts. Lastly, the thesis concludes by considering the SAH and LAH in light of the empirical evidence presented and its accompanying limitations, and argues that the evidence is generally consistent with the assumptions of the LAH.
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STEPHENS, DEBORAH ANNE. "LINGUISTIC ASPECTS OF CODESWITCHING AMONG SPANISH/ENGLISH BILINGUAL CHILDREN (SOCIOLINGUISTICS, PSYCHOLINGUISTICS, APPLIED LINGUISTICS)." Diss., The University of Arizona, 1986. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/188166.
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Codeswitching between languages is a uniquely bilingual mode of communication. The purpose of this dissertation is to enhance the current body of knowledge dealing with the phenomenon by analysing samples of speech produced by twenty-six Spanish/English bilingual children ranging in age from eight to twelve. Methods of analysis include theoretical linguistics, sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, and educational linguistics. A discussion of relevant codeswitching research covering the past thirty years is presented. The data were collected during a reading study focusing on miscue analysis. The children read stories in English and retold them in both Spanish and English. The analysis considers the data from the four previously mentioned points of view. The linguistic analysis looks at the locations of switched constituents within the sentence and the frequency with which those constituents are switched. The data of this study are compared with that of other researchers, and a consideration of a formal grammar of codeswitching is presented. The sociolinguistic analysis addresses the effect of social and stylistic variables on codeswitching. The psycholinguistic analysis of codeswitching covers lexical storage, editing phenomena, and developmental aspects. Finally, some aspects of the education of bilinguals are considered by analysing the effect of the printed word on language switching and dialect shifting . The application of the results of the analysis to both theoretical issues and practical concerns is explored along with suggested areas for future research. The analyses show that young children's codeswitching initially favors less complex structures and is influenced by few social variables. As they grow older, they become more comfortable with switching grammatically complex structures, and they become aware of a greater variety of social factors. A separate grammar is not necessary for a complete description of codeswitching; a modified interdependance model of the two grammars can account for the codeswitching mode. Lastly, the written language becomes part of the speech situation in the classroom and affects the choice of language or dialect spoken.
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Yee, Eiling J. "The time course of lexical activation during spoken word recognition : evidence from unimpaired and aphasic individuals /." View online version; access limited to Brown University users, 2005. http://wwwlib.umi.com/dissertations/fullcit/3174702.
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Odekar, Anshula. "Using eye-movement indices to capture semantic priming effects /." View abstract, 2006. http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&res_dat=xri:pqdiss&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:3220615.
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Downey, Ryan Andrew. "Examination of lexical properties during auditory sentence processing using event-related potentials." Connect to a 24 p. preview or request complete full text in PDF format. Access restricted to UC campuses, 2006. http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/ucsd/fullcit?p3237582.
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Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego and San Diego State University, 2006.Title from first page of PDF file (viewed December 13, 2006). Available via ProQuest Digital Dissertations. Vita. Includes bibliographical references.
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Sturdy, Daniel P. F. "The representation of letter strings : psychological evidence and computational models." Thesis, University of Stirling, 1990. http://hdl.handle.net/1893/26663.
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Two ways of representing the spatial arrangement of letters in letter-strings are distinguished. In part-whole representations, the relationship of a letter to the letter-string as a whole is encoded. In part-part representations, the relationships of a letter to other letters in the string are encoded. Computational models of word perception typically use the former, but part-part representations are a very general feature of some neurocomputational models. Experiments ·are reported that examine for nonword and word wholes the representations used to encode their constituent parts; the first five experiments use measures of facilitation to infer encoding type, the next three primarily use error measures. Experiment 1 shows that when a part of a recently learned letter-string is maintained in a briefly-presented test string, the test string is more accurately reported, showing perceptual transfer of training. No significant difference in the amount of transfer is found between maintaining the part in the same position (fixed-part) in the string and maintaining the part in a different position (moved-part) in the string. It is argued that this confirms part-part theories because transfer was obtained when only inter-letter relationships are maintained. Experiment 1 simulated on two implementations of part-whole theories shows that they fail to produce the obtained pattern of performance. This indicates that part-whole relational encoding is not a major part of the representations mediating these transfer effects. Experiment 2 replicates the fixed-part transfer and shows that it is restricted to parts made of adjacent letters. Experiments 3 and 4 use a prototype-extraction paradigm to show that novel parts made of adjacent letters are easier to learn than parts made of non-adjacent letters. Experiment 5 eplicates the moved-part transfer and shows that it is restricted to parts made of adjacent letters. These results show that the major inter-letter relationships encoded are between neighbouring letters. These first five results are taken as showing that pre-processing of the image to provide position-in-the-string information is not important for the representations that produce transfer. It is suggested that modelling the input to the graphemic input lexicon as the Primal Sketch of the image is more appropriate. In particular, realistic early vision algorithms such as MIRAGE appear to be potentially capable of modelling the results obtained. Experiment 6 shows that reports of letters in nonwords have gradients of positional accuracy, with most positional errors occurring close to the correct position. Experiment 7 finds that migrations into the report of the second of two briefly-presented nonwords from the first nonword do not always maintain position though many do. Experiment 8 involved the presentation of mis-spelled words preceded by non words that either encouraged the detection of the mis-spelling or its lexicalisation. Lexicalisation responses involve the migration of a letter from the preceding string. These occur when primed by the lexicalisation letter in the same, but not in moved, positions in the first string, but only when presented in the context of neighbouring letters. Detection of mis-spelling shows both facilitation and inhibition. Facilitation is obtained with the part in moved positions in the source string but not in the same position, in which case inhibition is found. Facilitation is also obtained by prior presentation of the misspelled word or prior presentation of the correctly spelled word. These results are interpreted as showing that facilitation is obtained when the facilitating part of the preceding string either fully or minimally activates a representation of the word mis-spelled on second presentation. Partial activation of the word produces inhibition. The results suggest that part-whole encoding is used for letters in familiar wholes, while part-part encoding is used for letters in unfamiliar wholes. This conclusion is used to motivate a model of the organisation and access of graphemic representations in which the ~ "» -. concept of scale plays an important role. The model is extended to other tasks involving visually presented words and nonwords and a brief account of the major findings attempted. Finally some extensions of the model to the domain of object perception are outlined.
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Granger, Colette A. "Trying the tongue : a psychoanalytic reading of silence in second language learning /." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 2000. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk1/tape3/PQDD_0018/MQ59172.pdf.
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Emond, Bruno. "Niveaux de représentation et processus cognitifs dans l'interprétation des pronoms personnels en français." Thesis, McGill University, 1994. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=28734.
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The study of cognitive representations and processes involved in personal pronoun interpretation allows one to investigate on a small scale the cognitive representations and processes of discourse comprehension. A review of the literature identifies four fundamental processes in personal pronoun interpretation: (A) syntactic constrains application, (B) gender, number, and person matching, (C) inferential selection, and, (D) discourse focus updating. A preliminary data collection from human performance has shown the importance of the application of syntactic constrains for pronoun interpretation. However, the level of specification for the representations and processes attained by the literature review and the preliminary experiment is not sufficient, therefore justifying the development of a more elaborate on-line pronoun interpretation process model. In order to attain a better model of the personal pronoun interpretation processes, the research approach has been to: (A) establish a strong link between the text linguistic features on one hand, and the cognitive representations and processes on the other hand through the construction-interpretation model, and (B) to reduce the gap between the experimental task specificity, and the general cognitive representations and processes assumed by the model. A second experiment, using experimental texts implementing a combination of many levels of representation, verified most of the model predictions. The model of the four interpretation processes as well as the empirical evidences support a point of view where the interpretation process for personal pronouns ends at various points during reading. The compound process of syntactic analysis and progressive semantic interpretation as well as the component processes associated with specific levels of representation explain the partiality of the pronoun interpretation process. The construction-interpretation model shows that the location of the execution of the interpretatio
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Jager, Bernadet. "Processing lexical ambiguity : the effects of meaning relatedness, word frequency, concreteness, and level of processing." Thesis, University of Aberdeen, 2012. http://digitool.abdn.ac.uk:80/webclient/DeliveryManager?pid=185856.
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This thesis explores the processing of lexical ambiguity: words with several unrelated meanings (homonymy) or many related senses (polysemy). Chapter I provides a literature overview of studies investigating this topic. Chapters 2 and 3 pursue a first goal: to investigate whether effects are influenced by the methodology of defining lexical ambiguity. The results support the hypothesis (Rodd, Gaskell, & Marslen- Wilson, 2002) that studies using questionnaires to define lexical ambiguity (e.g. Rubenstein, Garfield, & Millikan, 1970) found a polysemy advantage rather than a homonymy advantage. Questionnaire-based ambiguity classifications are more similar to dictionary-defined polysemy than to homonymy (Experiment 1). Moreover, earlier findings (e.g. Rodd et al., 2002) of a polysemy advantage and homonymy disadvantage are replicated, and the questionnaire-based classifications result in effects more similar to the former than to the latter (Experiments 2 to 4). Chapters 4 to 6 pursue a second goal: to explore the effects of polysemy and homonymy with new stimuli. Chapters 4 and 5 indicate that polysemy effects are sensitive to concreteness (Experiments 5 & 6), frequency (Experiment 7), and level of processing (Experiment 8). Furthermore, polysemy effects seem to take place relatively late (Experiment 9). In contrast, Chapter 6 does not find any effects of homonymy (Experiments 10 to 12). Chapter 7 pursues a third goal: to test whether the relationship between senses plays a role in word processing. Sense relationship influences word recognition (Experiments 13 & 16), but not semantic categorization (Experiment 14). The temporal locus of the lexical decision effect cannot be determined (Experiment 15). Finally, Chapter 8 shows that the current findings fit reasonably well within an account by Rodd, Gaskell, and Marslen- Wilson (2004), and suggests possible directions for further research.
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Guest, John F. "Exaggeration and extreme language: a pragmatic study." Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 2004. http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B29978634.
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Jeffrey, Gaynor C. "Combining ideas in written text : cognitive aspects of a writing process." Thesis, University of Nottingham, 1995. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.307814.
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Kamide, Yuki. "The role of argument structure requirements and recency constraints in human sentence processing." Thesis, University of Exeter, 1998. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.264591.
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Chan, Lily. "Children learn to read and write Chinese analytically." Thesis, University College London (University of London), 1996. http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/10018446/.
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Recent progress in psycholinguistic research on written Chinese allows us to develop a new approach to investigate the Chinese reading acquisition process. We hypothesized that Chinese children, much like children learning an alphabetic script, do not simply learn written words by rote. As they are taught words to be learned by rote, they develop an implicit understanding of the formal and functional characteristics of written Chinese. The formal characteristics refer to the graphic structure and the positioning of the stroke-patterns, and the functional characteristics refer to the semantic and phonological information conveyed in the stroke-patterns. The studies reported were designed to investigate the nature of children's learning of written Chinese. In two series of studies, a total of 236 children from Hong Kong, aged four to nine, created and decoded novel Chinese compound words. Results showed that young Chinese children attended to both the formal and functional constraints in reading and writing tasks. In the judging task, 4-year-olds were able to identify the type of orthographic elements - the stroke-patterns, but they could not place them in legitimate positions. The 6-years-olds were able to refer both to the position and the correct type of orthographic elements in differentiating pseudowords from nonwords. In the writing and reading tasks, four and five-year-olds were unable to utilize the semantic radicals to represent meaning, nor could they use the phonological components for pronunciation; six-year-olds could use the semantic radicals to represent meaning and only nine-year-olds could both use semantic radicals correctly and systematically referred to the phonological components for pronunciation. A significant age difference was found in all the experiments. The studies provide strong evidence that learning compound words in Chinese is not a simple matter of memorizing but involves the understanding of formal and functional constraints in the script. A possible application of these findings lies in the new direction offered for reading instruction where the non-generative, rote view of learning to read and write in Chinese can be safely abandoned.
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Wright, Victoria Caroline. "Word length effects in the left and right cerebral hemispheres : the right visual field advantage." Thesis, Swansea University, 2011. https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa43173.
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It has long been known that word length has a larger influence on the recognition of words presented in the left visual field than the right visual field, an effect commonly referred to as the length by visual field interaction. The aim of the present thesis was to explore the neural and behavioural effects of the length by visual field interaction. In doing so, it was expected that the results would contribute to and extend the body of behavioural research in this area, particularly in regard to the hemispheric processing of words. Chapter One presents a general overview of the thesis; in Chapter Two, the nature of the right visual field advantage is reviewed, with particular reference to previous work that has demonstrated differential effects of word length in each of the cerebral hemispheres. Models that seek to account for visual field asymmetries are also reviewed. Chapter Three outlines the key methods adopted in the thesis, namely, the divided visual field task and the use of event-related potentials. Chapters Four and Five present the results of two experiments that explored the neural effect of increasing word length in each of the hemispheres. The results provided ERP evidence of early processing dissociations between the hemispheres in terms of words and non-words of different lengths. Experiments 3-6 explored the effect of orthographic uniqueness point in each of the visual fields, as a means of exploring the nature of processing conducted by each hemisphere. Across three experiments, it was shown that words with a late uniqueness point were recognised faster and more accurately than words with an early uniqueness point. This facilitation for late uniqueness point words was evident in the ERP response at 170ms. Furthermore, orthographic uniqueness point was shown to differentially affect each of the hemispheres. Experiments 6-9 provided evidence to suggest that the interaction of length and visual field was influenced by orthographic depth, a property of language that reflects the transparency with which sounds are represented in print. In Chapter Ten, the effect of format distortion on the interaction of length and visual field was explored. Finally, Chapter Ten summarises and discuss the key findings of the present thesis in light of theories that seek to account for lateralised word recognition.
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Federmeier, Kara D. "Sense and structure : electrophysiological investigations of semantic memory organization and use /." Diss., Connect to a 24 p. preview or request complete full text in PDF format. Access restricted to UC campuses, 1999. http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/ucsd/fullcit?p9952655.
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Dick, Frederic. "Language in a sensorimotor brain /." Diss., Connect to a 24 p. preview or request complete full text in PDF format. Access restricted to UC campuses, 2003. http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/ucsd/fullcit?p3091337.
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Nobre, Maria José. "Inner speech as the basis for artistic conceptualization : Soviet psycholinguistics and semiotics of art /." The Ohio State University, 1986. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1487323583620267.
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Stacy, Catherine Ann. "Applying mixed-effects receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis to diagnostic evaluations of human learning." Access restricted to users with UT Austin EID Full text (PDF) from UMI/Dissertation Abstracts International, 2001. http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/utexas/fullcit?p3035981.
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MURPHY, SHARON MARY. "THE APPLICATION OF CAUSAL MODELING TO THE GOODMAN MODEL OF READING (CLOZE; MISCUE; PSYCHOLINGUISTICS)." Diss., The University of Arizona, 1987. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/184247.
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The research literature is replete with relatively small scale studies investigating various theories of reading. This research is often exploratory rather than confirmatory in nature. To avoid such limitations, samples from a large data base were used to examine causal models based on the Goodman theory of reading and the concepts of process and product comprehension. Two separate causal models were created using the following variables: graphic similarity, sound similarity, acceptability with prior text, acceptability with following text, acceptability or correction, the retelling score for the text read, the Comprehensive Tests of Basic Skills Vocabulary and Comprehension scores, and the Degrees of Reading Power (DRP) scores. The sample for one model consisted of 448 Grade Two to Grade Five students enrolled in a Chapter I program in the southwestern United States. The sample for the second model consisted of only the Grade Four and Grade Five students from the larger sample since DRP scores were not available for other students. In the hypothesized models graphic and sound similarity, and acceptability with prior and following were posited to load on a latent factor representing the unitary dimension of reading which in turn was posited to be causally related to process and product variables. Process variables included the acceptable or corrected score (RMI comprehending score) and the DRP score. Product variables included the CTBS scores and the retelling score. Product variables were posited to be dependent upon process variables. Analysis was conducted using the LISREL program. For both models causal pathways were dropped between process and product comprehension variables but were retained between the latent variables of reading and process and product comprehension. In addition, the DRP score loaded on product comprehension more than on process comprehension while retelling loaded more on process comprehension than product comprehension. Variables relating to the Goodman theory appeared to be more interrelated than those external to the theory. Implications for the uses of causal modeling and the constructs of process and product comprehension are discussed.
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Kwok, Sze-wei. "Functional MRI research on language processing in Chinese children and adults." Click to view the E-thesis via HKUTO, 2004. http://sunzi.lib.hku.hk/hkuto/record/B31354932.
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Kirshner, David. "The grammar of symbolic elementary algebra." Thesis, University of British Columbia, 1987. http://hdl.handle.net/2429/27665.
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In the practise of algebra education it is generally assumed that the rules for manipulating symbols are explicitly presented by text and teacher, and that acquisition of skill depends upon successful apprehension and application of these rules. Research into the psychology of algebra generally starts from the assumption that algebraic rules are consciously accessible and rationally employed. The view adopted here is that algebraic symbol skill is based upon procedural rules which are acquired informally (and often unconsciously) through interaction with algebraic symbols and which may be only peripherally related to the rules presented in instruction.
The principle purpose of the present research is to describe the procedural knowledge which underlies algebraic symbol skill. Knowledge of algebra is viewed as of-a-kind with the highly structured yet unconscious systems of rules which underlie natural-language competence. Formal methods of generative transformational linguistics are adapted for analysis of algebra. The model of algebraic symbol skill is captured in a 'grammar' which details the various components of skill.
In several instances alternative formulations are offered which equally well fulfill the formal requirements of the grammar. For some of these, techniques of psycholinguistics are used to guide selection on the basis of psychological considerations. Many questions remain in need of further elaboration and resolution.Education, Faculty of
Curriculum and Pedagogy (EDCP), Department of
Graduate
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Ström, Victoria. "Preposition Selection in EFL by Swedish EFL Learners : An exploratory study investigating language transfer and the impact of implicit and explicit knowledge in EFL." Thesis, Stockholms universitet, Engelska institutionen, 2014. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-104742.
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This study investigates how learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) whose first language (L1) is Swedish select prepositions in the English language. The study involves two groups, the participants and their respective controls. The participants are advanced EFL students at a Swedish university and their controls are intermediate EFL speakers who are no longer enrolled in an EFL course. The aim of the present psycholinguistic investigation is to elucidate the process of the preposition selection in EFL by means of a think-aloud-protocol. The present study involves the assumption that preposition selection by Swedish EFL learners is based on both implicitly and explicitly acquired knowledge. Data analysis indicates that the participants’ EFL preposition selection is influenced by their L1 knowledge. The results suggest that EFL preposition selection does not differ significantly between the two groups. However, the results are indicative of a variation in EFL preposition selection between the two groups in an EFL proficiency test and a think-aloud-protocol.
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Groefsema, Marjolein. "Processing for relevance : a pragmatically based account of how we process natural language." Thesis, University College London (University of London), 1992. http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/1317957/.
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This thesis presents an account of some of the mental mechanisms and processes that take the addressee from a linguistic input to the interpretation of that input. Because on-line interpretation involves our knowledge of language, the relation between input processing and grammar is evaluated. The full interpretation of a linguistic input also involves pragmatic, i.e. central cognitive processes, but these processes are the least well understood within psycholinguistics. Relevance theory (Sperber & Wilson, 1986) gives us a way of making our understanding of these processes more explicit. However, Relevance theory claims turn out to be incompatible with psycholinguistic models which postulate an autonomous syntactic parser, such as the 'Garden-path' model. A review of the experimental literature reveals that the findings claimed to support the 'Garden-path' model do not in fact support it. Likewise, the principle of Lexical Preference, proposed to account for how verb subcategorization frames are accessed, turns out not to be supported by the experimental evidence. Full interpretation involves computing a conceptual representation, and an account is given of what constitutes conceptual structure. This leads to the proposal that verbs are represented as structured concepts. This view of verb representation together with Relevance theory can account for when arguments of verbs can be left implicit. Finally, an account is given of how the addressee computes the propositional form communicated by an utterance, by building hypotheses about the conceptual structure of the proposition on-line. These hypotheses are based on structural information stored under the concepts referred to by the utterance. This proposal can account for psycholinguistic research findings, with pragmatics playing an integral role in the explanations: it is no longer grafted onto the model as a psycholinguistic afterthought.
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Playfoot, David Ross. "Reading and recognising acronyms : insights from behavioural, electrophysiological and neuropsychological investigations." Thesis, Swansea University, 2011. https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa43197.
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This thesis examined the processes involved in reading and recognising acronyms (e.g. BBC, HIV, NATO). Normative values for frequency, age of acquisition, imageability, length, bigram and trigram frequency and orthographic neighbourhood size have been collected, and the influence of these factors on reading, recognition (Chapter 3) and word association responses (Chapter 4) has been assessed. Findings suggest that acronyms are integrated alongside words in the mental lexicon, and that meaning and phonology are particularly important in acronym processing. Chapter 5 extended these findings by investigating the performance of a patient with a specific deficit in semantic processing (semantic dementia). Some acronyms, specifically those which are pronounced by naming each letter in turn, were found to pose few problems for this patient even after her semantic system had been adversely affected by her disorder. Chapter 7 reported an event-related potential study of acronyms, with reference to the N170 and Recognition Potential components. The electrophysiological data supported the interpretation of acronyms as lexical, and particularly influenced by print to pronunciation factors. Findings of the thesis as a whole were discussed in relation to the Dual Route Cascaded model (Coltheart, Perry, Rastle, Langdon & Ziegler, 2001) and the Triangle model (Plaut, Seidenberg & Patterson, 1996). It was concluded that neither model could adequately accommodate acronym reading and recognition processes as they currently stand. Suggestions for amendments to word reading models were made. Potential future research directions are also discussed.
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Abrams, Richard Lee. "Unconscious analysis of non-adjacent letters in four- and five-letter words /." Thesis, Connect to this title online; UW restricted, 2000. http://hdl.handle.net/1773/9034.
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