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Spring 00, Exam 3 |
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Part 1: Multiple Choice. Circle the letter corresponding to the correct answer. Only one answer is correct for each question. (1 point each) 1. In the sentence, "The kindly old magician charmed the naive young
waitress." The proposition (KINDLY MAGICIAN) shares an argument with the proposition
_____. 2. The sentences, "Lexical access is an interactive process." and, _____
would be represented by the same situation model but different surface forms and
propositional textbases. 3. Farah & McClelland's (1991) model of semantic memory impairment uses _____
representations of concepts. 4. The assignment of words in a sentence to their relevant grammatical categories is
called _____ a sentence. 5. According to the _____ listeners or readers attempt to interpret sentences in terms
of the simplest syntactic structure (i.e., the one with the fewest nodes in the phrase
structure tree) that is consistent with the input. 6. Warrington & Shallace (1984) found that some patients with brain injuries
are able to name objects that belong to biological categories (for example,
"dog" or "flower") but not human artifacts (such as "hammer"
or "light bulb") while others show exactly the opposite pattern. This is an
example of _____. 7. If McCloskey and Glucksberg (1979) had found that the presence of highly related
negative sentences (e.g., "A dolphin is a fish." and "A bat is a
bird.") attenuates the _____ effect, then Smith, Shoben, and Rips (1974) model of
semantic memory would have been confirmed. 8. MacWhinney, Bates, and Kliegl's (1984) _____ strategy suggests that the agent of the
pseudo-sentence, "The farmers avoids the barn." is "barn". 9. In Collins & Quillian’s (1969) model of semantic memory, the meaning of a
concept is represented by _____. 10. If Steedman and Johnson-Laird (1967) had found that semantically constrained
preposed indirect object sentences (such as "The man took the girl the coat.")
and their unconstrained counterparts (like "The man took the girl the boy.")
take the same amount of time to understand _____ would have been supported. Part 2: Definitions. In just 1 or 2 sentences, give an operational definition for each of the following concepts. Your definition may come from an experiment you are familiar with or you may make up your own definition (as long as it accurately defines the concept and is operational). (2 points each) Grading Criteria:
11. Reversible versus Nonreversible Sentences To determine if sentences are reversible or nonreversible I would present them to a group of participants and ask them to judge whether they still make sense when the agent and object are reversed (e.g., "The dog ate the bone." --> "The bone ate the dog."). Those for which a majority responded "yes" could then be classified as reversible while those for which a majority responded "no" could be classified as nonreversible. 12. Psychological Distance Between Two Words in a Sentence To measure the psychological distance between two words in a sentence I would present the sentence to a group of participants along with several other sentences then ask them to make speeded recognition judgements (by pushing a YES or NO button as quickly as possible in response to words presented on a computer screen). I would measure recognition time for the second word in the sentence under two conditions, when it is predeeded by a the first word and when it is preceeded by a word from a different sentence, and use the difference between these two times as my measure of the psychological distance between the two words in the sentence. 13. Sentence Verification Time As in a typical sentence verification experiment, I would ask show participants some sentences on a computer screen and ask them to indicate whether each is true or false by pressing a YES or NO button as quickly as possible. Sentence Verification Time could then be defined as the time that elapses between the presentation of a sentence, and a correct button press. 14. The Difficulty of Understanding a Sentence To measure the Difficulty of Understanding a Sentence, I would show it to a group of participants on a computer screen and ask them to indicate whether it is true or false by pressing a YES or NO button as quickly as possible. I would then calculate the reading rate for the sentence by dividing the average reading times (i.e., the time that elapses between the presentation of the sentence and a correct button press) by the number of words in the sentence. 15. Memorability of a Sentence I would begin by presenting the sentence to a group of participants along with several unrelated sentences then asking them to recall all the sentences. I would then calculate the average number of propositions correctly recalled by each subject (giving credit only when the predicate and all its arguments are explicitly mentioned) and divide this number by the number of propositions in the sentence. Part 3: Short Essay. Answer each of the following questions using no more than half of a page for each. (5 points each) 16. Savin & Perchonock (1965) took advantage of the tradeoff between storage capacity and processing complexity in short-term memory in their experimental test of the derivational theory of complexity. How would you change their experiment to test the hypothesis that syntactic processing is facilitated by semantic constraint? Be sure to describe the independent and dependent variables in your modified experiment, using operational definitions and/or examples where they are appropriate. What pattern of results would you expect if the hypothesis is true? What pattern of results would you expect if the hypothesis is false? Grading Criteria:
Example Answer: 17. Describe the difference between defining and characteristic features of a concept and give an example of each. Grading Criteria:
Example Answer: Defining features are features that must be present in all sub-types of a concept. For example, having feathers is a defining feature of birds. Even the most uncharactersitic birds, like penguins and ostriches, have feathers. Characteristic features, on the other hand, are features that most sub-types of a concept possess despite the fact that they don't have to be present in all the sub-types. Being able to fly is a characteristic feature of birds. The fact that they can't fly does not prevent penguins or ostriches from being considered birds. |
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