Question 1

The branch of psychology that studies verbal behaviour is called

Accepted Answer

Psycholinguistics is the branch of psychology that studies how language is acquired, produced, and understood.

Question 2

Washoe, a female chimpanzee described in the prologue of Ch. 10

Accepted Answer

Washoe, a female chimpanzee, was indeed taught American Sign Language (ASL) as part of a research project, and she was able to learn and use signs to communicate. She could string together signs to form short sentences, correctly generalize the use of signs in different contexts, and had learned a vocabulary of over 130 signs by the end of the study.

Question 3

Psycholinguists focus primarily on __________; linguists are more interested in __________.

Accepted Answer

Psycholinguists study the psychological and neurobiological factors that enable humans to acquire, use, comprehend, and produce language, focusing on human cognition. Linguists, on the other hand, study language and its structure, including the rules of language.

Question 4

Which of the following is NOT a part of our perception of normal speech?

Accepted Answer

Our perception of normal speech does not involve hearing a series of individual words in isolation; rather, we perceive speech as a continuous stream of sounds. The brain processes this stream and identifies individual words and meanings, but the actual sensory input is continuous and not segmented into discrete words.

Question 5

When we are responding to human speech rather than other sounds, search using fMRI indicates that

Accepted Answer

Both the right and left temporal lobes are involved in processing human speech, as indicated by fMRI studies showing contrastive responses in these areas.

Question 6

The word fin contains how many phonemes?

Accepted Answer

The word "fin" contains three phonemes: /f/, /ɪ/, and /n/. Phonemes are the smallest units of sound in a language that can distinguish one word from another.

Question 7

Which of the following is a bound morpheme?

Accepted Answer

"est" is a bound morpheme because it cannot stand alone as a word and typically attaches to an adjective to form the superlative form (e.g., "tallest").

Question 8

A morpheme is

Accepted Answer

A morpheme is indeed the smallest unit of meaning in a language, distinguishing it from phonemes, which are the smallest units of sound. Morphemes can be words themselves or parts of words that add meaning (such as prefixes or suffixes).

Question 9

While auditory processing of phonemes begins in both hemispheres, regions of the __________ specialize in recognizing phonetic information and normal speech sounds.

Accepted Answer

The left auditory cortex is specialized for processing phonetic information and normal speech sounds, reflecting the lateralization of language functions in the brain, particularly in most right-handed individuals and a significant number of left-handed individuals.

Question 10

The vibration of the vocal cords is called

Accepted Answer

Voicing refers to the vibration of the vocal cords when producing sounds, which is essential for creating voiced sounds in speech.

Question 11

Psychologically, the most fundamental unit of speech appears to be a(n)

Accepted Answer

The answer of Psychologically, the most fundamental unit of speech...

Question 12

Voice-onset time is a

Accepted Answer

Voice-onset time is a feature used in phonetics to distinguish between types of consonant sounds, particularly plosives, based on the time it takes for the vocal cords to start vibrating after the release of the consonant. It is crucial for distinguishing phonemes in various languages.

Question 13

Which of the following statements is TRUE?

Accepted Answer

The perception of a phoneme can indeed depend on the context provided by surrounding sounds, illustrating the phenomenon of coarticulation where the perception of one sound is influenced by preceding and following sounds. This is a key aspect of how we understand spoken language.

Question 14

When subjects in Sanders and colleagues' study showed the N100 response to the the sound of a string of nonsense syllables, this indicated

Accepted Answer

The N100 response is an event-related potential that is elicited by the onset of a novel or unexpected sound. In Sanders and colleagues' study, the N100 response was elicited by the sound of a string of nonsense syllables. This indicates that the subjects had learned that a segment of the string was a 'word.'

Question 15

Consider the syllable hfis. Although you probably have never heard this syllable before, you would likely understand its meaning if you heard in a sentence, such as "Margo caught a huge hfis below the dam today."This example reflects the importance of __________ in speech perception.

Accepted Answer

Context is crucial in understanding unfamiliar words or syllables in speech, as it provides the necessary background or situation that gives words their meaning. In the given example, the context of the sentence allows one to infer the meaning of "hfis."

Question 16

Top-down processing in speech perception is demonstrated by the

Accepted Answer

Top-down processing in speech perception involves using contextual knowledge to understand and interpret words and sentences. This means our expectations, knowledge, and past experiences can influence how we perceive sounds and words, demonstrating the effect of context on our perception of words and word meaning.

Question 17

The impact of context in understanding speech is an example of

Accepted Answer

Top-down processing involves using background knowledge and context to understand and interpret what we hear or see. In the context of understanding speech, it refers to how our expectations, knowledge, and previous experiences influence our interpretation of the words we hear.

Question 18

Syntactical rules are

Accepted Answer

Syntactical rules refer to the principles or guidelines for arranging words and phrases to create well-formed sentences in a language. These rules dictate how words combine to form phrases, clauses, and sentences, which is essential for coherent and structured communication.

Question 19

Which of the following statements are TRUE?

Accepted Answer

Our understanding of syntax is indeed automatic, and syntactical rules are typically learned implicitly, without explicit instruction. Additionally, research in neurolinguistics has shown that learning syntax and word meaning involves different brain mechanisms, indicating that these processes are distinct.

Question 20

Which of the following was NOT cited in the text as being a syntactical cue?

Accepted Answer

Semantics and word meaning (E) are related to the meaning of words and phrases, rather than their arrangement or structure, which is the focus of syntax. Thus, semantics is not a syntactical cue.

Quiz 10: Language