Deck 10: Language

Question 1

The branch of psychology that studies verbal behaviour is called

A) phonetics.
B) psychophonology.
C) linguistics.
D) psycholinguistics.
E) cross-cultural psychology.

Answer 1

psycholinguistics.

Question 2

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

A) learned a sign language.
B) was able to string three words together in short sentences.
C) showed some correct generalizations in her language use.
D) had a vocabulary of over 130 signs.
E) all of the above

Answer 2

all of the above

Question 3

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

A) syntax; semantics
B) human cognition; the rules of language
C) semantics; human cognition
D) semantics; syntax
E) speaking; language

Answer 3

human cognition; the rules of language

Question 4

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

A) a series of sounds in a continuous stream
B) raising and lowering of pitch
C) a series of individual words
D) punctuation characterized by pauses
E) the patterns underlying speech

Question 5

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

A) only the left temporal lobe shows a contrastive response to these types of sound.
B) only the right temporal lobe shows a contrastive response to these types of sound
C) both right and left temporal lobes showed a contrastive response to these types of sound.
D) both right and left temporal lobes are shown to analyze the details of speech information.
E) regions showing the largest difference in response were located in the parietal lobe.

Question 6

The word fin contains how many phonemes?

A) 0
B) 1
C) 2
D) 3
E) 4

Question 7

Which of the following is a bound morpheme?

A) ten
B) pin
C) ant
D) est
E) ear

Question 8

A morpheme is

A) the smallest unit of sound in a language.
B) a collection of sentences.
C) the smallest unit of meaning in a language.
D) the equivalent of a syllable.
E) made up of a collection of syllables.

Question 9

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

A) right auditory cortex
B) left auditory cortex
C) left parietal cortex
D) right superior temporal lobe
E) left inferior occipital lobe

Question 10

The vibration of the vocal cords is called

A) speaking.
B) voicing.
C) sounding.
D) articulating.
E) pronouncing.

Question 11

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

A) group of syllables.
B) group of phonemes
C) individual phoneme.
D) one syllable word.
E) all of the above

Question 12

Voice-onset time is a

A) delay between seeing a written word and saying that word.
B) reaction time to a verbal stimulus.
C) delay between hearing a word pronounced and saying that word.
D) means of discriminating among phonemes.
E) delay between seeing a word and writing a word.

Question 13

Which of the following statements is TRUE?

A) The influence of context on speech recognition is an example of bottom-up processing
B) The perception of a phoneme depends in part on the sound that follows it.
C) Psychologically, phonemes are the most basic unit of voice perception.
D) Discrimination among phonemes is not affected by voicing.
E) Psychologically, phonemes are the basic unit of meaning in a 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

A) that they had learned that a segment of the string was a 'word.'
B) that bottom-up processing of continuous speech was occurring.
C) the importance of context to understanding speech.
D) that the sound was outside the normal frequency range for human speech.
E) that they were not able to comprehend anything meaningful in the string.

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.

A) hearing
B) semantics
C) voicing
D) context
E) articulating

Question 16

Top-down processing in speech perception is demonstrated by the

A) effect of context on our perception of words and word meaning.
B) ability to understand words out of context.
C) inflection of the vocal cords.
D) principles of combining words to form phrases.
E) none of the above

Question 17

The impact of context in understanding speech is an example of

A) voicing.
B) voice-onset.
C) top-down processing.
D) syntax.
E) prosody.

Question 18

Syntactical rules are

A) the patterns of rhythm and emphasis used by a speaker.
B) principles for understanding contextual variations in the perception of phonemes.
C) principles for combining words to form phrases, clauses, or sentences.
D) conventions that people have formally agreed to follow so that they can be understood when speaking or writing symbolically.
E) none of the above.

Question 19

Which of the following statements are TRUE?

A) Our understanding of syntax is automatic.
B) Syntactical rules are learned implicitly.
C) Learning syntax and word meaning involves different brain mechanisms.
D) all of the above
E) none of the above

Question 20

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

A) word order
B) prosody
C) affixes
D) semantics
E) word meaning

Question 21

In English, the __________ of a sentence tells the reader or listener who did what to whom.

A) word class
B) word order
C) prosody
D) intonation
E) syntactical rules

Question 22

Function words, wording meaning, and prosody are all types of

A) affixes.
B) semantic cues.
C) content structures.
D) syntactical cues.
E) verbal cues.

Question 23

Which of the following words is NOT a function word?

A) at
B) some
C) and
D) big
E) the

Question 24

The word the is a(n)

A) function word.
B) affix.
C) content word.
D) semantic.
E) prosody.

Question 25

Orange, happily, carpet, and hit are examples of

A) content words.
B) function words.
C) affixes.
D) prosody.
E) contextual words.

Question 26

Content words express

A) meaning.
B) the relations between function words.
C) the surface structure of a sentence.
D) all of the above.
E) none of the above.

Question 27

Function is to __________ as content is to __________.

A) apple; but
B) suffix; prefix
C) meaning; structure
D) deep; surface
E) structure; meaning

Question 28

Which of the following words does NOT contain an affix?

A) mysteriously
B) clandestine
C) encourage
D) reinstate
E) dropped

Question 29

In spoken language, the sentences, "This is all."and "This is all?"would differ only in vocal inflection. This is an example of

A) priming.
B) fixation.
C) deep structure.
D) prosody.
E) semantics.

Question 30

__________ is reflected in written language by punctuation marks.

A) Priming
B) Deep structure
C) Prosody
D) Fixation
E) An affix

Question 31

__________ refers to the use of stress, rhythm, and changes in pitch that accompany language use.

A) Prosody
B) Deep structure
C) Semantics
D) Fixation
E) Priming

Question 32

The meanings and the study of the meanings represented by words is

A) prosody.
B) semantics.
C) syntax.
D) function.
E) structure.

Question 33

Semantics is

A) the use of changes in intonation and emphasis in speech.
B) the grammatical rules of a language.
C) the study of the meanings represented by words.
D) the grammatical features of a sentence.
E) the characteristics that are typical of a particular situation.

Question 34

The meaning of a sentence is reflected in its __________ structure.

A) surface
B) deep
C) grammatical
D) semantical
E) phonetical

Question 35

The sentences "The girl patted her dog on his head."and "The dog was patted on his head by the girl."have __________ surface structure and __________ deep structure.

A) the same; a different
B) the same; the same
C) a different; a different
D) a different; the same
E) a complex; a simple

Question 36

The specific form that a sentence takes is called its __________ structure and the meaning of a specific sentence is called its __________ structure.

A) syntactical; semantic
B) surface; deep
C) semantic; syntactical
D) deep; surface
E) shallow; interior

Question 37

Deep is to __________ as surface is to __________.

A) word order; syntax
B) prosody; word class
C) syntax; semantics
D) function; content
E) semantics; syntax

Question 38

Those with conduction aphasia can retain the __________ of others speech but not the __________.

A) syntax; word order
B) prosody; word class
C) deep structure; surface structure
D) function; content
E) syntax; semantics

Question 39

According to Schank and Abelson, __________ are methods by which we organize knowledge.

A) scripts
B) semantics
C) deep structures
D) syntaxes
E) surface features

Question 40

Lonnie was telling Greg about a trip he took on the Ocoee River in Tennessee. Lonnie said, "The rapid called Slice and Dice was,"but before he finished the sentence Greg said, "I know exactly what you mean."Greg's understanding of what Lonnie was saying is due to

A) scripts.
B) pragmatism.
C) prosody.
D) priming.
E) fixation.

Question 41

When you visit a restaurant that you've never been to before, you still have an idea of what will happen there because of your

A) syntax.
B) pragmatism.
C) prosody.
D) script.
E) research.

Question 42

A person who has a serious problem in articulating words, especially function words, may be suffering from

A) Broca's aphasia.
B) Wernicke's aphasia.
C) isolation aphasia.
D) phonological dyslexia.
E) surface dyslexia.

Question 43

__________ often results from damage to Broca's area.

A) Phonological dyslexia
B) Surface dyslexia
C) Isolation aphasia
D) Agrammatism
E) Wernicke's aphasia

Question 44

Agrammatism involves

A) recognizing spoken words.
B) an inability to comprehend speech.
C) difficulty in the production and comprehension of grammatical features.
D) an inability to pronounce the terms used to describe the grammatical features of a sentence.
E) deficits in the perception of speech.

Question 45

When people with Broca's aphasia hear the sentence "the cow was kicked by the horse"they are unable to decide which animal was kicked. The occurs because __________ is causing difficulty in __________ of grammatical elements of speech.

A) agrammatism; production
B) Wernicke's aphasia; production
C) agrammatism; comprehension
D) asemanticism; comprehension
E) word deafness; comprehension

Question 46

Research by Petitto and colleagues (2000) examining PET scans of both vocal and sign language users indicates that a region of the frontal cortex called __________ is probably responsible for grammatical sequences in language.

A) the auditory cortex
B) the motor centre
C) the insula
D) Wernicke's area
E) Broca's area

Question 47

The brain structure that has been implicated in the recognition of spoken words is __________ area.

A) Broca's
B) Wernicke's
C) Carlson's
D) Merrill's
E) Chomsky's

Question 48

A person who has a serious problem in the production and comprehension of speech may be suffering from

A) Broca's aphasia.
B) Wernicke's aphasia.
C) isolation aphasia.
D) phonological dyslexia.
E) agrammatism.

Question 49

Suppose that a person approaches you on campus and says, "Oy've stent here walls and my gosh thay roped fourteen. We jus' took it to the bank and arranjen iss pedic."Since you just studied language and language use in your psychology class, you correctly note that this person seems to be suffering from

A) Broca's aphasia.
B) Wernicke's aphasia.
C) isolation aphasia.
D) phonological dyslexia.
E) agrammatism.

Question 50

Damage to Broca's area can cause __________. Damage to Wernicke's area can cause __________ .

A) agrammatism; pure word deafness
B) isolation aphasia; agrammatism
C) meaningless fluent speech; meaningful but slow speech
D) pure word deafness; isolation aphasia
E) isolation aphasia; pure word deafness

Question 51

People with pure word deafness

A) are deaf.
B) cannot understand what others say to them.
C) cannot learn new sequences of words.
D) are unable to repeat strings of words that they read.
E) cannot learn to speak.

Question 52

Damage to the posterior language area that surrounds __________ area disrupts the ability to __________ words.

A) Wernicke's; recognize
B) Wernicke's; understand
C) Broca's; understand
D) Broca's; recognize
E) Broca's; vocalize

Question 53

People who have isolation aphasia can __________ but cannot __________.

A) produce meaningful speech; comprehend speech
B) comprehend speech; produce meaningful speech
C) comprehend speech; learn new word sequences
D) repeat others' speech; produce meaningful speech
E) produce meaningful speech; repeat others speech

Question 54

Studies by Peterson and colleagues (1988) using PET scanners to study neural activity of people with healthy brains has shown that the sound of words activates

A) the left posterior temporal lobe (the region of Wernicke's area).
B) the right anterior temporal lobe.
C) Broca's area.
D) both frontal lobes (the region that surrounds Broca's area).
E) all areas of the brain equally.

Question 55

If we hear a story, understanding it involves __________ but then retelling it to someone else involves __________.

A) Broca's area; Wernicke's area
B) the posterior language area; Wernicke's area
C) Wernicke's area; Broca's area
D) Broca's area; the posterior language area
E) the visual association cortex; the posterior language area

Question 56

People who suffer from autotopagnosia cannot

A) write.
B) repeat words that they hear spoken.
C) produce or comprehend meaningful speech.
D) name their body parts.
E) repeat words that they read.

Question 57

Given the instruction "put your hands on your head,"Pearl does not know where to put her hands, although most of her speech processing and production is normal. She is probably suffering from

A) propagnosia.
B) isolation aphasia.
C) agrammatism.
D) autotopagnosia.
E) Broca's aphasia.

Question 58

With the exception of the __________ language, most modern languages use an alphabetic writing system.

A) Latin
B) Roman
C) Chinese
D) Aleutian
E) Greek

Question 59

The __________ alphabet was originally developed to represent the sounds of the __________ language.

A) Phoenician; Roman
B) Latin; Greek
C) Greek; Phoenician
D) Roman; Latin
E) Chinese; Roman

Question 60

When we read, we perceive things

A) continuously as the eye scans the page.
B) only during brief periods of inflection.
C) only once we have finished reading a complete sentence.
D) only during brief periods of eye fixation.
E) only once we have completed each complete thought.

Question 61

The average duration of a fixation is about __________ milliseconds.

A) 100
B) 250
C) 500
D) 1000
E) 2500

Question 62

While reading, we generally fixate for the longest on __________ words.

A) content
B) function
C) familiar
D) interesting
E) longer

Question 63

Which of the following words is MOST likely to have the longest fixation time?

A) and
B) but
C) the
D) boy
E) or

Question 64

In terms of scanning text, one difference between a good reader and a poor reader is that the good reader

A) skips more function words.
B) makes fixations in both forward and backward directions.
C) takes more time to scan each word.
D) makes fixations in a forward direction.
E) makes fixations in a random manner.

Question 65

Fixation time __________ as the uniqueness of a word __________.

A) decreases; decreases
B) increases; decreases
C) decreases; increases
D) remains unchanged; increases
E) remains unchanged; decreases

Question 66

Fixation time __________ as the predictability of a word __________.

A) decreases; decreases
B) increases; increases
C) decreases; increases
D) remains unchanged; increases
E) remains unchanged; decreases

Question 67

Reading that involves decoding the sounds that letters or groups of letters make is called __________ reading.

A) sight
B) whole-word
C) partial word
D) phonetic
E) functional

Question 68

"Sight reading"is also known as __________ reading.

A) phonetic
B) whole-word
C) partial-word
D) functional
E) phonological

Question 69

Inexperienced readers tend to use __________ while experienced readers tend to use __________.

A) phonetic recognition; whole-word recognition
B) rapid fixations; slow fixations
C) saccades; fixations
D) partial-word recognition; whole-word recognition
E) phonetic recognition; partial-word recognition

Question 70

Whole-word is to __________ as phonetic is to __________.

A) inexperience; experience
B) sound; sight
C) regular; irregular
D) new reader; expert reader
E) familiar; unfamiliar

Question 71

Whole-word recognition

A) is a slower process than phonetic recognition.
B) is common in inexperienced readers.
C) is most likely to occur with familiar words.
D) is more common among female readers than male readers.
E) is more common among male readers than female readers.

Question 72

While reading her psychology text, Anne comes across words that she has never seen before, such as exacerbate and reserpine. She notices that on these sorts of unfamiliar words she must stop and try to pronounce the words several times. For unfamiliar words, Anne is using the method of reading known as __________ reading.

A) sight
B) phonetic
C) whole-word
D) partial-word
E) functional

Question 73

Demetrius is teaching his young son, Henry, how to read. Henry is encountering lots of new words. Demetrius is mostly likely using the __________ reading method to teach young Henry how to read.

A) partial-word
B) whole-word
C) phonetic
D) sight
E) functional

Question 74

If we were not able to readily use the __________ reading method, then we would have considerable difficulty in reading irregularly spelled words.

A) sound-it-out
B) partial-word
C) phonetic
D) whole-word
E) functional

Question 75

People who have problems reading may suffer from a disorder known as

A) aphasia.
B) agrammatism.
C) dyslexia.
D) apraxia.
E) phoneticism.

Question 76

A specific deficit in reading ability that is caused by brain damage that occurs after a person has already learned how to read is called __________ dyslexia.

A) developmental
B) subvocal
C) maturational
D) acquired
E) Broca's

Question 77

Sharalu is in the second grade and is having problems reading. Her scores on an intelligence test show that she is above average in intelligence. Sharalu is likely to be suffering from __________ dyslexia.

A) acquired
B) developmental
C) physical
D) maturational
E) subvocal

Question 78

Surface dyslexia is a specific reading disorder involving the inability to use __________ reading.

A) phonetic
B) semantic
C) partial word
D) whole-word
E) functional

Question 79

A person with phonological dyslexia has difficulty reading using the __________ reading method.

A) partial-word
B) whole-word
C) surface
D) phonetic
E) functional

Question 80

With surface dyslexia there is difficulty in __________ reading, whereas with phonological dyslexia the difficulty is in __________ reading.

A) whole-word; phonetic
B) partial-word; whole-word
C) phonetic; whole-word
D) whole-word; partial-word
E) partial-word; phonetic