TOPIC 8The Brain & Language Mastery

• Our linguistic ability does not depend primarily on the structure of our vocal cords, for other mammals also have vocal cords.

• Human linguistic ability largely depends on the structure and dynamics of the human brain.

• Human beings are the only organisms in which one particular part of the left half of the brain is larger than the corresponding part of the right half.

The biological foundations of language

• The most important part of the brain is the outside surface of the brain, called the cerebral cortex.

• The brain is divided into two roughly symmetrical halves, called hemispheres. – Right hemisphere controls voluntary movements of, and responds

to signals from the left side of the body• controls visual and spatial skills as well as the perception of

nonlinguistic sounds and musical melodies– Left hemisphere controls voluntary movements of, and responds

to signals from the right side of the body.• controls language.

• The localization of cognitive and perceptual functions in a particular hemisphere of the brain is called lateralization.

The Human Brain

WHAT IS BRAIN LATERALIZATION? • The term brain lateralization refers to

– the two halves of the human brain are not exactly alike.

• The human brain is a paired organ – composed of two halves (called

cerebral hemispheres).– Each hemisphere has its own

functional specializations.

• Linguistic lateralization is the brain’s neurological specialization for language.– Left hemispheric dominance for

language– Dichotic listening research– The language centers– Language perception, comprehension

and production– The critical period for language

acquisition

What is Linguistic lateralization?

Left/Right Brain hemisphere (theory of Roger Sperry)

Otak Kiri

• Logik dan analisis• Urutan• Linear• Rasional• Teliti• Pembelajaran hafalan

(bahasa)• Matematik

7

Otak Kanan

• Kreatif• Random• Intuitif• Holistik • Pantas • Visual• Muzik

Brain lateralization for major mental functions under the control of each hemisphere

Left hemisphereRight hemisphere• Language and speech• Analytic reasoning• Temporal ordering• Reading and writing• Calculation• Associative thought

• perception of nonlinguistic sound• holistic reasoning• visual and spatial skills• recognition of patterns• recognition of musical melodies

• Three areas of the left hemisphere are vital to language, namely, Broca’s area, Wernicke’s area and the angular gyrus.

The language centers

• Broca’s area– The area in the frontal lobe, usually in the left

hemisphere, that controls the production of speech sounds

– Paul Broca• Among the first scientists to demonstrate the existence

of localized functions in the cerebral cortex; concluded that the site of damage was the part of the brain responsible for speech production

• Broca’s aphasia• An impairment in the physical ability to produce speech

sounds, or, in extreme cases, an inability to speak at all– Aphasia

• A loss or impairment of the ability to understand or communicate through the written or spoken word, that results from damage to the brain

• Wernicke’s area– The language area in the temporal lobe involved

in comprehension of the spoken word and in formulation of coherent speech and written language

– Wernicke’s aphasia• Aphasia that results from damage to Wernicke’s area

and in which the person’s spoken language is fluent, but the content is either vague or incomprehensible to the listener

• Another kind of aphasia is auditory aphasia• Word deafness

• Temporal association areas– House memories and are involved in the

interpretation of auditory stimuli– There is a special association area where familiar

melodies are stored

Wernicke–Geschwind model• Carl Wernicke created an early neurological model of

language, that later was revived by Norman Geschwind - The model is known as the WERNICKE–GESCHWIND MODEL.

• According to Wernicke, people who suffer from brain damage to a particular part of the brain (i.e. temporal lobe – Wernicke’s area) may experience receptive aphasia, i.e. cannot understand speech, but still can speak fluently (their speech is meaningless).

• Damage to Broca’s area (frontal cortex) cause individual to suffer from aphasia, i.e. cannot speak (partial/total loss of speech ability) but still understand what others are saying.

Wernicke–Geschwind

Model

• For listening to and understanding spoken words, the sounds of the words are sent through the auditory pathways to area 41 (the primary auditory cortex) From here they continue to wernicke’s, where the meaning of the words is extracted.

• In order to speak, the meanings of words are sent from Wernicke’s area via the arcuate fasciculus to Broca’s area.

• Broca’s area holds a representation for articulating words Instructions for speech are sent from Broca’s area to the facial area of the motor cortex and from there instructions are sent to facial motor neurons in the brainstem, which relay movement orders to facial muscles.

What is Language?• Language can be defined in many ways.• Language is……

– “a set of (finite and infinate) sentences. Each is finite in length and constructed out of a finite set of elements” (chomsky, 1957)

– “a mean of communication, generally through spoken sounds that express specific meanings, and are arranged according to rules”. (Papalia & Olds, 1985)

– “an organized system of symbols with meanings that are shared, and are used to communicate”. (Bourne & Mamcy Felipe Russo, 1998)

What is Language?• A law of grammar and semantic that makes

conversation more meaningful , i.e. language is a combination of words to communicate a symbolic code used in communication.

• A collection of symbols with rules and collectively they can create an infinite variety of messages i.e. a system of symbols and rules that enable us to communicate.

• The systematic, meaningful arrangement of symbols according to rules to create a message that has a common meaning for users and recipients.

• Covers ways of communication where thoughts and emotions are being expressed in order to convey message/meaning to others

6 Properties of language1. Communicative – enable people to communicate with each

other.

2. Arbitrarily symbolic - Language create an arbitrary relationship between a symbol and its reference, such as things, ideas, process, relationship & description.

3. Regularly structured - Language has a structure, where particular patterns of sounds and letters form meaningful words.

4. Structured at multiple levels – Language structure can be analyzed at more than one level (e.g. in sound, meaning units, words, phrases etc)

5. Generative, Productive – Limitless ability to produce language creatively

6. Dynamic – Language constantly evolves

Language Component• Phonology

– sound system of language• Semantics

– the meaning conveyed by words and sentences• Syntax

– The set of grammatical rules indicating how words may be combined to make sentences

• Pragmatics– The priciple that determine how language are used

pragmatically - according to situations & modified to fit the context (e.g: we speak in a simpler manner to a child than to an adult)

Speech Production and Comprehension: Brain Mechanisms

– Transcortical sensory aphasia• A speech disorder in which a person has difficulty comprehending speech

and producing meaningful spontaneous speech but can repeat speech; caused by damage to the region of the brain posterior to Wernicke’s area.

– Autotopagnosia• Inability to name body parts or to identify body parts that another person

names.– Arcuate fasciculus

• A bundle of axons that connects Wernicke’s area with Broca’s area; damage to these axons causes conduction aphasia.

– Conduction aphasia• An aphasia characterized by the inability to repeat words that are heard

but the ability to speak normally and comprehend the speech of others.

Language Competence

• Psycholinguists (scientists who study language processing) focus on three aspects of language competence: – Acquisition - Language acquisition is the language

learning, in babyhood or later– Comprehension- Language comprehension is the

ability to extract intended meanings from language.– Production - Language production is the ability to

speak or write fluently.

Language Acquisition

• Two types of Language acquisition:– First language acquisition

• Infants’ acquisition of their native language– Second language acquisition

• Additional languages learned (acquired) by children & adult.

Language Acquisition:First language acquisition

• How do we learn our native language? What are the stages this process follows?

• How do failures in this process occur?– When you’re tired--not just people with

pathologies

Language Acquisition:Language Development

• Phonological development– —from babbling to full sentences

• Semantic development– We learn what things mean (semantics) and acquire

concepts

• Syntactic development and syntactic categories

– We learn the syntax of our language (what are syntactic categories)

Stages of Language Acquisition• Receptive language (language comprehension)• Productive language (language expression or speaking)

– Cooing (6-8 mths) – mostly vowels sound (aaaa, uuuuu, oooo….)

– Babbling (9-18 mths) – comprising of consonant and vowel sounds (BA, MA…)

– One-word utterance - (18-24 mths) – limited in both vowels & consonant – single word (BALL, DAD, HIT….)

– Two-word utterance and telegraphic speech (24-30 mths) - simple sentence (BAD DOG…).

– Basic adult sentence structure (above 30 mths) – building sentence – presence of grammatical and functional structure, and continuing vocabulary acquisition.

Language AcquisitionSecond Language

Acquisition• Factors that affect our chances of learning L2:

– Individual differences• working memory span

– Age of acquisition effects• time at which begin to learn L2

– Environment of learningc• classroom versus immersion

– Style of instruction– arnab is “rabbit” or• associations between translations or directly to

concepts

Learning a Second Language• Most people around the world speak two or more languages• Bilingualism is associated with

– better metalinguistic skills• The capacity to think about language

– Decreased efficiency in memory tasks involving words– Most bilinguals develop compensatory strategies for word memory

tasks but respond more slowly• No age limit on ability to learn a new language

– Early starters have increased proficiency and accent– Easier to learn second language the better you know your native

language, spelling rules, grammar structure, and vocabulary

Learning a Second Language

• Growing up in a bilingual home provides distinct advantages in adolescence and adulthood.

• Spanish and English are the languages spoken by the majority of bilinguals in the United States

Language Comprehension

• Language comprehension is the ability to extract intended meanings from language.

• As a rule, comprehension develops faster than production.– A three year old can understand more than the same child

can speak. – A non-native speaker of English can understand more than

he or she can say.– A student new to a discipline can understand the

professional jargon before being able to produce it.

Language comprehension• Sometimes language comprehension becomes difficult

and ambiguous because some combination of words give a different meaning, i.e. the expressions can often be interpreted more than one way.

• Words that look alike but sound different are called homographs. Cth:– the word "affect" which can be pronounced:

• a-FECT (meaning cause) or • AFF-ect (meaning emotion)

• A psychologist who reads, "The patient had a flat affect" will know to pronounce the word AFF-ect and will interpret this sentence as meaning "The patient showed little emotion."

Language comprehension• Usually there is a context that helps us determine

the intended meaning of a word. The surrounding words disambiguate (remove ambiguity from) a homonym.

• A psychologist who reads, "The patient had a flat affect" will know to pronounce the word AFF-ect and will interpret this sentence as meaning "The patient showed little emotion."

• Language production is the ability to speak or write fluently.

• Language production refers to the process involved in creating and expressing meaning through language.

• According to Levelt (1989), language production contains four successive stages:

1.Conceptualization2.Formulation3.Articulation4.Self-monitoring (Scovel 1998:27 )

Language Production

Language production

• Psycholinguists generally agree that some form of mentalese exists--- a representation system which is different from language.

• The notion is that thoughts take form in mentalese and are then translated into linguistic form, but there is little agreement as to the properties of this prelinguistic mental representation.

First stage: Conceptualization

• Formulation is much easier to describe than conceptualization because analysis on eventual output of the process, such as speech errors, and the choice of words or sentence structures can be a great help for understanding speech production.

Second Stage: Formulation

• Articulation of speech sounds – A very important stage of production.– Once we have organized our thoughts into a

linguistic plan, this information must be sent from the brain to the muscles in the speech system so that they can then execute the required movements and produce the desired sounds.

• We depend on vocal organs to produce speech sounds so as to express ourselves. – In the production of speech sounds, the lungs,

larynx and lips may work at the same time and thus form co-articulation.

Third stage: Articulation

• Self-regulation is the last stage o f speech production.

• To err is human. No matter who he is, he would make mistakes in conversation or in writing.

• So each person would do some self-correction over and over again while conversing.

Forth stage: Self-regulation

• Speech errors are made by speakers unintentionally. • They are very common and occur in everyday speaking. • In formulation speech, we are often influenced by the

sound system of language. For example, big and fat--- pig fat; fill the pool---fool the pill.

• The scientific study of speech errors, commonly called slips of the tongue or tongue-slips, can provide useful clues to the processes of language production: they can tell us where a speaker stops to think.

• According to Freud’s errors occur because we have more than a single plan for production and that one such plan competes with and dominates the other.

Speech Errors

__________________________________________________________Type Example__________________________________________________________(1) Shift That’s so she’ll be ready incase she dicide to hits it.

(decides to hit it).

(2) Exchange Fancy getting your model resnosed. (getting your nose remodeled).

(3) Anticipation Bake my bike. (take my bike).

(4) Perseveration He pulled a pantrum. (tantrum).

(5) Addition I didn’t explain this clarefully enough.(carefully enough).

(6) Deletion I’ll just get up and mutter intelligibly. (unintelligibly).

(7) Substitution At low speeds it’s too light. (heavy).

(8) Blend That child is looking to be spaddled. (spanked\paddled). ______________________________________________________

Examples of the eight types of errors

(1) Shifts = one speech segment disappears from its appropriate place and appears somewhere else.

(2) Exchanges = are double shifts, in which two linguistic units exchange places.

(3) Anticipations =occur when a later segment takes the place of an earlier one. They are different from shifts in that the segment that intrudes on another also remains in its correct place and thus is used twice.

(4) Perseverations = appear when a earlier segment replaces a later item. (5) Additions = add linguistic material.(6) Deletions = leave something out.(7) Substitutions = occur when one segment is replaced by an intruder.

These are different from the previously described slips in that the source of the intrusion may not be in the sentence.

(8) Blends = occur when more than one word is being considered and the two intended items “fuse” or blend into a single item.

Explainations of errors

• Errors are committed only by non-native speakers, but not by native speakers.

• Native speakers often make “mistakes” and correct themselves immediately, which gives us deep understanding of the production process. – Firstly, the production is not one-way transmission of messages.

Speakers or writers self-regulate constantly so as to ensure each previous stage is accurate.

– Secondly, speakers or writers are sensitive to mistakes they make. So at the sight of mistakes they are capable of readjusting messages at the stages of conceptualization, formulation, or articulation quickly.

– Lastly, the fact that native speakers can monitor and correct mistakes immediately in production proves Chomsky’s idea that there are some differences between performance and competence.

• Competence monitors performance to ensure the production is accurate.

Deep understanding of the production process

• Firstly, at the very beginning or the conceptualization stage of the speech, when they find their speech inappropriate they would start the utterance all over again.

• Secondly, at the formulation stage or articulation stage, speakers would not like to start afresh but renew the sentence in part from the point.

Native speakers often use different ways to edit their linguistic peformance

Speech Production and Comprehension: Brain Mechanisms

– Memory of words: anomic aphasia– Anomic aphasia

• Aphasia characterized by difficulty in finding words.The speech of patients with this aphasia is fluent and grammatical, and their comprehension is excellent.

– Circumlocution• A strategy by which people with anomic aphasia find

alternative ways to say something when they areunable to think of the most appropriate word.

• Speech Production and Comprehension: Brain Mechanisms

– Prosody: rhythm, tone, and emphasis in speech

– Prosody• The use of changes in intonation and emphasis to

convey meaning in speech besides that specified bythe particular words; an important means ofcommunication of emotion.

Disorders of Reading and Writing

– Relation to aphasia

– Pure alexia• Loss of the ability to read without the loss of the

ability to write; produced by brain damage.

• Also known as pure word blindness or alexiawithout agraphia.

Disorders of Reading and Writing

– Toward an understanding of reading

– Whole-word reading• Reading by recognizing a word as a whole; sight

reading.

– Phonetic reading• Reading by decoding the phonetic significance of

letter strings; sound reading.

Disorders of Reading and Writing

– Toward an understanding of reading

– Surface dyslexia• A reading disorder in which a person can read words

phonetically but has difficulty reading irregularlyspelled words by whole-word reading.

– Phonological dyslexia• A reading disorder in which a person can read familiar words

but has difficulty reading unfamiliar words or pronounceable nonwords.

Disorders of Reading and Writing– Toward an understanding of reading– Direct dyslexia

• A language disorder caused by brain damage inwhich the person can read words aloud withoutunderstanding them.

• Many methods and measuring instruments have so far been employed to either prove or disprove that dyslexia has a biological basis, ranging from autopsies on the brains of deceased dyslexics, to advanced technological tools such as the computerized axial tomography (CAT) scan, magnetic resonance (MR) imaging, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), positron emission tomography (PET), and single photon emission computerized tomography (SPECT). While researchers still differ in opinion about the affected brain area, the majority nowadays agrees that the dyslexic’s brain differs from that of a “normal” reader.

Disorders of Reading and Writing– Why Some Dyslexics Read ‘b’ when it is ‘d’ – The word “dyslexia” means “difficulty with words or

language.” A telltale sign of dyslexia is reversals. People with this kind of problem often confuse letters like b and d, either when reading or when writing, or they sometimes read (or write) words like “rat” for “tar,” or “won” for “now.”

– A popular theory is that reversals are caused by a neurological deficit. In other words, there is something wrong inside the brain of the person. While many factors can contribute to dyslexia, one should not overlook the principle that perception of anything depends on our past experiences.

Disorders of Reading and Writing

– Before one can read or learn anything, one has to become aware of it through one of the senses. Usually one has to hear or see it. In other words, perception must take place.

– Subsequently one has to interpret whatever one has seen or heard. In essence then, perception means interpretation.

– Lack of experience may cause a person to misinterpret what he has seen or heard. In other words, perception represents our apprehension of a present situation in terms of our past experiences, or, as stated by the philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724-1804): “We see things not as they are but as we are.”

Disorders of Reading and Writing

– Toward an understanding of reading– Direct dyslexia

• A language disorder caused by brain damage in which the person can read words aloud without understanding them.

• Dysgraphia (or agraphia) is a difficulty writing coherently, regardless of ability to read. People with dysgraphia often can write, and may even have a higher than average IQ, but lack co-ordination, and find other fine motor tasks such as tying shoes difficult.

• They can also lack basic spelling skills (having difficulties with p,q,b,d), and often will write the wrong word when trying to formulate thoughts (on paper). a appear to be unrelated)

Disorders of Reading and Writing

– Toward an understanding of reading– Dyslexic dysgraphia

• With dyslexic dysgraphia, spontaneously written work is illegible, copied work is fairly good, and spelling is bad. Finger tapping speed (a method for identifying fine motor problems) is normal, indicating the deficit does not likely stem from cerebellar damage. A Dyslexic Dysgraphia does not necessarily have dyslexia. (dyslexia and dysgraphia appear to be unrelated)

Disorders of Reading and Writing– Phonological dysgraphia

• A writing disorder in which the person cannot soundout words and write them phonologically.

– Motor dysgraphia• Dysgraphia due to motor clumsiness has illegible

spontaneously written work, illegible copied work, normal spelling, and abnormal finger tapping speed.

– Spatial dysgraphia• Dysgraphia due to a defect in the understanding of space has

illegible spontaneously written work, illegible copied work, normal spelling, but normal tapping speed.

• Some children may have a combination of any two or all three of these. Symptoms in actuality may vary in presentation from what is listed here

Cognition• The mental processes that are involved in acquiring, storing,

retrieving, and using information include sensation, perception, imagery, concept formation, reasoning, decision making, problem solving, and language.

• Imagery– The representation in the mind of a sensory experience

• Visual, auditory, gustatory, motor, olfactory, or tactile.• imagine hearing a favorite song or someone calling your name• Useful in learning or maintaining motor skills• Same brain areas used when rehearsing or performing a skill

Cognition• Prototype

– An example that embodies the most common and typical features of a concept.

• Usually fits close to a natural concept• Bird prototypes involve robin and sparrows since they can fly rather

than penguins and emus that do not fly.• Which of these birds best fits your prototype for the concept of bird?

Cognition• Prototype

– An example that embodies the most common and typical features of a concept.

• Usually fits close to a natural concept• Bird prototypes involve robin and sparrows since they can fly

rather than penguins and emus that do not fly.

• Exemplars– The individual instances, or examples, of a concept that are

stored in memory from personal experience– If you work with penguins in a zoo your exemplar of a bird would be

a penguin– Someone who doesn’t work in a zoo may use the bird they see, a

robin as their exemplar of a bird

Representativeness Heuristic• How do you choose a fast-food restaurant? Chances are you use a

representative heuristic – A prototype that guides your expectations about – how long it will take to get your food– What it will taste like– Restaurant chains use the same ingredients and methods at every location

to help establish customers’ representative heuristic for fast-food buying decisions

Decision MakingThe process of considering alternative and choosing among them

•Bounded Rationality – Boundaries or limitations around the decision making process

prevent it from being entirely logical.– Size of working memory

•Elimination by Aspects– A decision-making approach in which alternatives are evaluated

against criteria that have been ranked according to importance.– Usual ranking, from most important to least important– Spend only $800 for rent monthly

• Choices in apartments are limited by first $800 figure.

Decision-Making

• Heuristics– A rule of thumb that is derived from experience and used in

decision-making and problem solving, even though there is no guarantee of its accuracy or usefulness

– A decision to leave home early to avoid getting stuck in a traffic jam though you don’t know if there will be one.

• Availability Heuristic – A cognitive rule of thumb that says that the probability of an

event or the importance assigned to it is based on its availability in memory

– Decision to leave home early to avoid traffic jam came because you were stuck in one recently.

Decision-Making

• Representative Heuristic– A thinking strategy based on how closely a new object or

situation is judged to resemble or match an existing prototype of that object or situation.

– A decision to go out with someone may be based on how much that person looks like someone you know.

• Recognition Heuristic – A strategy in which decision-making stops as soon as a factor that

moves one toward a decision has been recognized.– You vote for a woman candidate simply because you see a female

name on the ballot and you want a woman to win the election.

Decision-Making

• Framing– The way information is presented so as to emphasize either

a potential gain or loss as the outcome.– Positive framing leads people to prefer an option.– Describing a “cure” as saving 300 people will cause it to be

favored over one that lists how many will die.• Intuition

– Rapidly formed judgments based on “gut feelings” or “instincts.”

– Usually based on a mental representation of the gist of a body of information rather than on its factual details.

– Can lead to errors in reasoning about decisions – Physicians overestimated the degree to which condoms

reduce the risk of sexually transmitted diseases.

Problem-Solving

Thoughts and actions required to achieve a desired goal that is not readily attainable.•Analogy Heuristic

– Applies a solution that solved a problem in the past to a current problem that shares many features with the past problem.

•Working Backward– A heuristic strategy in which a person discovers the steps

needed to solve a problem by defining the desired goal and working backward to the current condition

Creativity

• The ability to produce original, appropriate, and valuable ideas and/or solutions to problems.

• Snow, genuine creativity “is an accomplishment born of intensive study, long reflection, persistence, and interest.”

• A weak to moderate correlation between creativity and IQ– High intelligence does not necessarily mean high creativity

• Genuine creativity rarely appears in sudden flashes• Four stages in creative problem-solving process

1. Preparation-searching for information to help solve the problem2. Incubation-letting the problem “sit” while the relevant information is

digested3. Illumination-being suddenly struck by the right solution4. Translation-transforming the insight into useful action

Creativity

• Divergent Thinking – The ability to produce multiple ideas, answers, or solutions to a problem for which there

is no agreed-on solution– Is novel, original, and involves the synthesis of an unusual association of ideas; – Is flexible, switching quickly and smoothly from one stream of thought or set of ideas to

another;– It requires fluency, the ability to formulate an abundance of ideas.– High degree of divergent thinking demonstrated by creative thinkers– Both brain hemispheres highly active during creative thinking

• Convergent Thinking– The type of mental activity measured by IQ and achievement tests– Consists of solving precisely defined, logical problems for which there is a known correct

answer– Demonstrated by greater activity in the left frontal cortex

Creativity

Highly creative thinking is associated with activity in both hemispheres, but with significantly higher levels in the right hemisphere (a).

During thinking that is not creative (b ) activity is largely restricted to the left hemisphere.

Creativity

• Measuring individual differences in creativity– Tests emphasize original approaches to arriving at solutions for open

ended problems or for producing artistic works– Unusual Uses Test

• Asks respondents to name as many uses as possible for an ordinary object (such as a brick)

– Consequences Test• Asks test takers to list as many consequences as they can that would be

likely to follow some basic change in the world (gravity being reduced by 50%)

– Remote Associations Test• The essences of creativity is the thinker’s ability to fit together ideas that

to the noncreative thinker might appear remote or unrelated

Creativity

• Exceptionally creative individuals– Have a great deal of expertise in a specific area build up by years of

discipline and practice– Open to new experiences and ideas – even those that seem odd to

others– Inherently curious and inquisitive– Independent thinkers less influenced by the ideas of others– More likely to be motivated by the anticipation, excitement, and

enjoyment of their work than by a desire to please others.– Creative endeavor requires hard work and persistence in the face of

failure• Albert Einstein published 248 papers on theory of relativity• Mozart created 609 musical compositions before death at 35 years of age.