Psychology of Language

Recommended Prerequisites

No prerequisites.

Teaching Methods

(1) Lecturing (2) research methods praticum.

Learning Outcomes

Students should be able to answer the following five questions, from the point of view of their history within the psychology of language, the state of the art in this discipline, and research methods: 1.What representations and processes underpin the perception and production of speech sounds? 2.What representations and processes underpin the understanding and production of single words? 3. What representations and processes underpin the understanding and production of sentences? 4.What are the main brain structures involved in the understanding and production of words and sentences? 5.What are the main stages in the normative acquisition af a first language? After completing the course, students should differentiate and interrelate the cognitive counterparts of the three levels of the linguistic code- phonemic, lexical and syntactic- should be familiar with the methodologies used in their study, and understand their links with different brain structures, as well as their development.

Work Placement(s)

No

Syllabus

1. The nature of human language: introductory notions

2. Theories and methods in the study of language: historical introduction

2.1 Taxonomic linguistics and the technical vocabulary of contemporary linguistics

2.2 Generative linguistics and the founding concepts of contemporary syntactic theory

2.3 Relationships between linguistics and psycholinguistics

3. Language understanding

3.1 Theories of speech perception

3.1.1 Speech perception research methods [to be developed in laboratory classes]

3.2 Theories of the mental lexicon

3.2.1 Methods of investigation of the lexical level of language [to be developed in laboratory classes]

3.3 Theories of the syntactic analysis process

3.4 Theories of semantic composition of sentential meaning.

3.5 Understanding discourse

4. Language production

5. Neuropsychology of language

6. Language Acquisition.

Head Lecturer(s)

Luiza Isabel Gomes Freire Nobre Lima

Assessment Methods

Assessment
Synthesis work: 20.0%
Laboratory work or Field work: 20.0%
Exam: 60.0%

Bibliography

Carroll, D. (2006). Psicologia del lenguaje. Madrid: International Thomson Editores.

Corballis, M. C. (2017). The truth about language. Auckland: Auckland University Press.

Dronkers, N. F., & Menn, L. (2015). Psycholinguistics: Introduction and applications. San Diego: Plural Publishing Inc.

Fernández, E., & Cairns, H. (2011). Fundamentals of psycholinguistics. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.

Friederici, A. D. (2017). Language in our brain: The origins of a uniquely human capacity. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Hagoort, P (2019). Human language. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Spapé, M., Steenbergen, H., & Verdonschot, R. (2014).The E-Primer: An introduction to creating psychological experiments in E-prime. Leiden: Leiden University Press.

Traxler, M (2011). Introduction to psycholinguistics. Chichester:Wiley-Blackwell.

Zubicaray, G, & Schiller, N. (Eds) (2019). The Oxford handbook of neurolinguistics. New York: OUP USA.