Psychology of Language module (PY32002)

This module introduces current theories and findings in Psychology of Language (Psycholinguistics).

Psycholinguistics is the scientific study of human language and communication. For example, the research field has informed us that babies can distinguish between the sounds in their mother tongue by 6 months of age (and lose the ability to distinguish sounds only found in other languages). We have also discovered that adults can produce 2-4 words per second, making very few errors. How do we manage this?

This module explores the fascinating topic of language use and the uniquely human characteristic to master this communicative ability.

What you will learn

In this module, you will:

• learn about word recognition and explore whether and why we understand words differently when they are written vs spoken
• learn about sentence comprehension and how we understand complex sentences
• learn about discourse comprehension and how we work out a coherent message across a chunk of text
• learn about word production and why we sometimes make errors when speaking
• learn about sentence production and how we produce sentences seamlessly, exploring whether or not we start a sentence before we know all the words we are going to say
• learn about dialogue and explore whether we change what we say depending on the person we are speaking with
• learn about bilingualism and how bilingual and multilingual people understand and speak more than one language
• learn about psycholinguistic methodology and how we can explore human language and communication scientifically

By the end of this module, you will be able to:

• demonstrate detailed knowledge of core theories in the area of psycholinguistics
• find, read, and evaluate relevant research within this area
• express your knowledge in writing and discussion

Assignments / assessment

• online quizzes (20%)
• end-of-semester exam (80%)

Teaching methods / timetable

• weekly face-to-face 2-hour lectures
• small group tutorials

Learning materials will be provided through a variety of sources which are made readily available to students, e.g., lecture notes, tutorial notes, supplementary videos and demonstrations, and a list of essential and suggested readings from University of Dundee library resources.