PSY30400 Chapter 11: Chapter 11 Part 5
Chapter 11: Language
• In order to determine how words are used in a particular language, must collect a large
representative sample of utterances or written text from a written language
o this is called a corpus
o Indicates the frequency of different meanings and grammatical constructions in
that language
▪ reflects how people typically use their language
• Word Frequency Effect:
o we respond more rapidly to high-frequency words like home than to low
frequency words like hike
o Demonstrated through lexical decision task in which subjects are asked to read
stimuli and decide whether they are words or nonwords
▪ can carry out this task faster for high-frequency words
o Also demonstrated by looking at eye movements
▪ saccadic eye movements
▪ By looking at where people are looking as they read, it is possible to
determine where people are looking as they read
▪ Readers looked at low frequency words longer than high frequency
words → readers could need more time to process these words
• Lexical Ambiguity:
o Some words have more than one meaning
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