Unit name | Psychology of Language |
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Unit code | PSYC31051 |
Credit points | 20 |
Level of study | H/6 |
Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 1A (weeks 1 - 6) |
Unit director | Professor. Damian |
Open unit status | Not open |
Pre-requisites |
None |
Co-requisites |
None |
School/department | School of Psychological Science |
Faculty | Faculty of Life Sciences |
This course is a comprehensive overview of the perceptual and cognitive mechanisms involved in language acquisition, comprehension and production. A major aim of this unit is to sensitise students to the fact that, although seemingly effortless, language activities require a great deal of complex and fast mental computation. In keeping with recent advances in behavioural neuroscience, the neuro-anatomical substrates of language functions will also be examined. The unit will cover the following topics: language and evolution, language and thought, lexical semantics, spoken production, spoken perception, sentence processing, reading, bilingualism, neuroscience of language and aphasiology.
At the end of the course, students will be able to demonstrate an insight into how language processing differs from, and to what extent it overlaps with, related auditory and visual cognitive abilities. They should be able to discuss current controversies regarding attempts to place language within an evolutionary framework. Moreover, students will master basic notions in speech acoustics and they will be able to identify the areas controlling language on a brain map.
This unit comprises 18 x 1 hour lectures and tutorials.
Summative assessment with one 1600 word essay (30%) and one 2 hour exam (70%).
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