29857 - Psycholinguistics (LM)

Learning outcomes

Students will be provided with an overview of the psycholinguistic research from mid-twentieth to nowadays. Particular attention will be paid to cognitive processes involved in language comprehension and production. They will also know the interaction between the different cognitive processes that are subordinated to the production/comprehension of the language. As well, they will obtain a correct methodology in transferring their own knowledge into the applied field.

Course contents

Psycholinguistics (1) (LM) (6 CFU) aims to provide the student with a theoretical and applicative overview of language in psychology and in particular according to the approach of cognitive psychology.
The course will cover topics related to the study of language from a psycholinguistic perspective (e.g., development and origin of language, research methods, biological bases of language, language processing systems), and topics related to to applicative research on language taking into account interdisciplinary perspectives aimed at the study of language as interactional practice (e.g., pragmatic and communicative aspects of language, language as joint activity).

The lessons will aim to provide the theoretical basis and the main experimental evidence in order to promote a fruitful collective discussion of the issues addressed.

Students who have already taken a psycholinguistic course are asked to contact the professor by email. Previous knowledge of psycholinguistics is not required

Psycholinguistics (1) (LM) (6 CFU) will start on the 13 of February 2019 (III period) for a total of 30 hours of lessons. Lectures will be held at the Department of Philosophy and Communication, via Azzo Gardino 23, Aula B.

The schedule will be as follows:

Wednesday 13.00 - 15.00

Thursday 13.00 - 15.00

Friday 13.00 - 15.00

Students of all Master's Degree courses (for example, Italian Language and Culture for Foreigners; Language, Society and Communication) in whose study plan there is Psycholinguistic (9 credits) or Psychology of Language and Communication (9 CFU) will have to choose the Psycholinguistic course (1) (LM) (6 CFU), and integrate the exam bibliography of the 6 CFU course with some articles to choose from the published list (see specific information in the Reading/Bibliography section).

The students of the Master's Degree in Italian Studies and Linguistic Sciences who choose the 29857 - Psycholinguistic (LM) course (12 CFU) must attend, in addition to the Psycholinguistic course (1) (LM) (6 CFU), also the Psycholinguistic course (2) (LM) (6 CFU), see supplementary information on the course page.

 

Readings/Bibliography

The exam bibliography is NOT differentiated according to whether the student is attending or not attending.

Exam bibiliografy 6 cfu

for both attending and not attending students:

1) Cacciari, C. Psicologia del linguaggio. Bologna: Il Mulino.

Edizione 2011 - Capitoli I. Studiare il linguaggio; II. La ricerca sperimentale sul linguaggio; III. L'origine e lo sviluppo del linguaggio; IV. Le basi del linguaggio; VI. Il sistema di elaborazione delle parole; VII. Dalle parole alle frasi, ai discorsi, ai testi.

As regard the italian text Cacciari (2011), foreign students who feel more comfortable studying in English are kindly asked to contact the professor.

2) Clark, H.H. (1996). Using language. Cambridge University Press.
Capitoli: 1. Language use; 2. Joint activities; 3. Joint actions; 8. Grounding

 

Exam bibiliografy 9 cfu

for both attending and not attending students:

1) Cacciari, C. Psicologia del linguaggio. Bologna: Il Mulino.

Edizione 2011 - Capitoli I. Studiare il linguaggio; II. La ricerca sperimentale sul linguaggio; III. L'origine e lo sviluppo del linguaggio; IV. Le basi del linguaggio; VI. Il sistema di elaborazione delle parole; VII. Dalle parole alle frasi, ai discorsi, ai testi.

As regard the italian text Cacciari (2011), foreign students who feel more comfortable studying in English are kindly asked to contact the professor.

2) Clark, H.H. (1996). Using language. Cambridge University Press.
Capitoli: 1. Language use; 2. Joint activities; 3. Joint actions; 8. Grounding

3) 3 PAPERS of your choice, more specifically:

Two from this list of theorical papers:

1. Barsalou, L.W. (2009). Simulation, situated conceptualization, and prediction. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, 364, pp. 1281–1289.
2. Caruana F., Borghi, A.M. (2013). Embodied Cognition: Una nuova psicologia. Giornale Italiano di Psicologia, XXXV, pp. 23-48.
3. Mahon, B.Z., Caramazza, A. (2008). A critical look to the embodied cognition hypothesis and a new proposal for grounding conceptual content. Journal of Physiology, 102, pp. 59-70.

One from this list of applied papers:

1. Chen, M., & Bargh, J. A. (1999). Consequences of automatic evaluation: Immediate behavioral predispositions to approach or avoid the stimulus. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 25, 215–224.
2. Glenberg, A. M., & Kaschak, M. P. (2002). Grounding language in action. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 9, 558–565.
3. Lugli, L., Baroni, G., Gianelli, C., Borghi, A.M., Nicoletti, R. (2012). Self, Others, objects: How this triadic interaction modulates our behaviour. Memory & Cognition, 40, 1373-1386.
4. Scerrati, E., Baroni. G., Borghi. A.M., Galatolo, R., Lugli, L., Nicoletti, R. (2015). The modality-switch effect: visually and aurally presented prime sentences activate our senses. Frontiers in Psychology – Cognition. Volume 6:1668. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01668.

The papers can be found online from the Unibo library portal. To download them remotely from your computer, when you are not connected to the Unibo Wifi network, you need to access via the Unibo proxy service (link: http://www.biblioteche.unibo.it/portale/strumenti/proxy).

Students who have problems finding the article, are invited to contact the professor.

Students who are interested in other specific subjects (for degree thesis or research projects, etc.), are asked to contact the professor.

Teaching methods

Lectures with power point presentations and group discussions.

 

Assessment methods

The exam will be in written form and students will be asked to answer to 6 open questions (but with limited space) that will cover the topics studied and their applications, and which may require students to design an experiment related to one of the course topics.

The exam test aims to verify:

1. the competence on the acquired contents

2. the level of assimilation and critical-conceptual elaboration of the proposed contents

3. the ownership and congruity of the linguistic expression of the different subjects examined

4. the ability to orientate between the main lines of interpretation

They will be evaluated with marks of excellence:

• the ability to know how to express properly and with appropriate language to the subject matter
• the acquisition by the student of an organic vision of the topics addressed in class together with their critical use

They will be evaluated with discrete marks:

• a mnemonic knowledge of the subject,
• a capacity for synthesis and analysis articulated in a correct language, but not always appropriate

 

They will be evaluated with insufficient marks:

• knowledge gaps and / or inappropriate Language
• lack of orientation in the bibliographic materials offered during the course

The exam offers a further opportunity for discussion with the teacher, a comparison that the student is invited to look for during the lessons, intervening in person with the request for clarification or with proposals for further information.

Students who have already taken a Psycholinguistic examination may, if they wish, opt for an oral interview in which they will have to present and discuss a paper on a topic covered during the course. In this case students are asked to contact the teacher.

Foreign students who feel more confortable to take the exam in English, are kindly asked to contact the professor in order to arrange the examination procedure.

Teaching tools

Participation in experimental sessions for the deepening of experimental paradigms

Office hours

See the website of Luisa Lugli