30.3639, Review: Psycholinguistics: de Groot, Hagoort (2017)

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LINGUIST List: Vol-30-3639. Thu Sep 26 2019. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 30.3639, Review: Psycholinguistics: de Groot, Hagoort (2017)

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Date: Thu, 26 Sep 2019 11:00:07
From: Zeynep Başer [zynpbaser at gmail.com]
Subject: Research Methods in Psycholinguistics and the Neurobiology of Language: A Practical Guide

 
Discuss this message:
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Book announced at http://linguistlist.org/issues/30/30-45.html

EDITOR: Annette M. B. de Groot
EDITOR: Peter  Hagoort
TITLE: Research Methods in Psycholinguistics and the Neurobiology of Language: A Practical Guide
PUBLISHER: Wiley
YEAR: 2017

REVIEWER: Zeynep Başer, Kırıkkale University

SUMMARY

The book entitled ''Research Methods in Psycholinguistics and the Neurobiology
of Language: A Practical Guide'' aims to provide a comprehensive overview of
various methods currently used in research on understanding the
psycholinguistic and neurobiological aspects of the human language faculty.
The book consists of 17 chapters, each of which focuses on a different method
used in the field, although each has similar sections. More specifically, all
the authors in the book explain the rationale of the method they introduce,
the required apparatus, the process of data collection and analysis, what
instruments and software programs are currently available and might be used,
the procedure of the experiments, and the weaknesses and strengths of each
method in comparison to related methods. They also present an exemplary study
or provide a reference to other relevant studies for a more detailed
explanation. Below is given a brief summary of each chapter.  

In the first chapter, Fennell introduces the habituation techniques and their
use in language acquisition studies. The method makes it simple to implement
tasks with infants or very young children, from whom it is often challenging
to collect language data. The rationale of using the method, the basics and
the nature of the stimuli are explained with examples from the literature.
Though measures such as heart rate and sucking can be also used in the
habituation studies, Fennell mainly focuses on a relatively more advantageous
one, looking time, which does not require any other material such as
electrodes or pacifiers. He also provides a useful guide for methodological
design by clarifying the important phases, and presents an exemplary study.
Lastly, advantages and problems one might encounter in the implementation and
interpretation are discussed. 

In Chapter 2, the authors, Golinkoff, Soderstrom, Can, and Hirsh-Pasek,
present visual preference techniques. They ultimately describe the Intermodal
Preferential Looking Paradigm and the Head Turn Preference Procedure. The
authors explain how these methods can be used in order to better understand
the process of language acquisition in infants and very young children who
cannot yet follow instructions or produce language. First, the authors present
the Intermodal Preferential Looking Paradigm. Following a general overview and
an example study, they give details about the variants of the paradigm, namely
Interactive Intermodal Preferential Looking Paradigm, the
Looking-While-Listening Paradigm, and Preferential Looking Paradigm without
Language. Later, the Head Turn Preference Procedure and the variants of the
procedure are also briefly mentioned. Visual preference techniques are also
advantageous, as are the habituation techniques mentioned in Chapter 1,
considering the fact that they make it easy to conduct studies with
pre-linguistic children. On the other hand, children's behaviours might
equally be driven by uncontrolled factors, as discussed in both chapters.
Therefore, researchers should be careful especially in the interpretation of
the data. 

In Chapter 3, the authors, Marchman and Dale, focus on assessing receptive and
expressive vocabulary in young children by making use of three types of
methods: language sampling, parent report, and direct assessment. Introducing
some core issues in studying and assessing vocabulary knowledge, the authors
explain the ins and outs of each method. Furthermore, they name several tools
such as CHILDES and ELAN for language sampling, Wordbank and some language
development surveys for parent report, and vocabulary tests for direct
assessment, all of which are currently available for studying vocabulary
development in some languages. 

In Chapter 4, Kliegl and Laubrock discuss the use of an eye-tracking record
during reading. The nature of eye-tracking data, eye-trackers and experimental
paradigms are introduced for beginners. Later, the authors explain
eye-tracking measures and inferential statistics required for data analysis.
The authors present an example study investigating the eye-voice span during
oral reading. The technical details regarding simultaneous recording of eye
movements and voice protocols as well as identification of word boundaries
during oral reading are explained briefly. Lastly, after naming general
practical issues related to eye-tracking during reading, the authors present
brief descriptions of three research paradigms (lexical decision tasks, rapid
serial visual presentation, and self-paced reading) used in reading
experiments to limit the disadvantages of eye-tracking methodology. 

Salverda and Tanenhaus explain the visual world paradigm and discuss the
advantages of and concerns about the relevant experimental methods in Chapter
5. The visual world paradigm combines language processing and visual search.
Participants' eye movements to objects or images are monitored while they
listen to or produce language. Introducing the basics of the paradigm, the
authors discuss general issues that need to be taken into consideration during
the design, analysis, and interpretation stages such as speech-, task-, or
vision- related factors. The authors suggest that the visual world paradigm
has several advantages in psycholinguistic studies as follows: it can be used
with a wide range of populations, it is a real-time measure, it is aimed at
understanding the nature of speech processing, and it can be used to study
interactive task-based communication. However, it is important to be aware of
the limitations due to the assumptions and principles of the  paradigm. 

In Chapter 6 entitled ''Word Priming and Interference Paradigms, the authors,
Shao and Meyer, describe word priming and interference studies to investigate
the complex structure of the mental lexicon. Explaining the basics of the
paradigms very briefly, the authors immediately present two exemplary studies
for a better picture of conducting these studies. Later, they exemplify
software packages such as E-prime and Praat, and discuss other important
issues that ought to be taken into consideration while designing a priming
experiment such as modality of primes and targets, properties of prime-target
combinations, stimulus timing, and the choice of task and participants. After
sharing some details about the data analysis procedure, the chapter ends with
a final word on the contributions of word priming studies to psycholinguistics
and their limitations. 

Structural priming is the facilitation of processing which is observed when a
sentence has the same structure as a preceding one. The relevant literature
has shown that people's choices of a particular language structure is
sensitive to structural priming, and many scholars have used the paradigm as a
powerful tool for understanding the underlying mechanisms of sentence
processing. In Chapter 7, Branigan and Gibb describe the structural priming
paradigm. The authors provide detailed explanations about the design of
structural priming experiments with famous examples from the literature.
Furthermore, paradigms for studying priming in comprehension and production
are presented separately so as to clarify differences in tasks of structural
priming within or across modalities.  The authors present a hypothetical study
as a useful guide for experimental design and analysis, and later discuss main
concerns and limitations of structural priming paradigms in general. 

In Chapter 8 entitled ''Conversation Analysis'', Hoey and Kendrick describe
the basics of conversation analysis, a method for understanding the nature of
human social interaction. In the chapter, the authors mainly focus on four
types of practices for conducting conversation. These include turn-taking,
sequence-organization, turn design, and repair. The details of collecting and
analyzing data are presented with clear examples. For this purpose, they
introduce a candidate interactional practice they will identify as
''assessment-implicative interrogative phenomenon'' from real data extracts
and examine it through the chapter demonstrating every step of how to define
the boundaries of a phenomenon and provide a formal account. Besides, the
authors touch upon the extent to which quantitative methods are also used in
conversation analysis. The chapter ends with an exploratory discussion about
the potential contributions of conversation analysis, from the study of social
interaction to psycholinguistics, the study of cognitive processes in
individuals.

Chapter 9 is about the use of virtual reality in psycholinguistic studies. The
authors, Casasanto and Jasmin, mainly focus on the use of immersive virtual
reality (iVR), in which individuals are expected to have the ultimate feeling
of ''presence''. iVR can offer a compromise between high levels of
experimental control and realism to language researchers.  Parameters of the
stimuli, including those of the agents and the environment, can be much more
easily manipulated with the use of VR. The authors present the details and
examples of such experimental manipulation. Later, they present an exemplary
study investigating speech accommodation and the extent to which
extralinguistic aspects of an interaction might play a role in accommodation
effects. Furthermore, before negotiating the advantages and pitfalls of iVR,
in order to discuss whether the conclusions of studies on conversation in
immersive virtual reality might be generalized to real conversation between
humans, the authors present a relevant study investigating the effect of
syntactic priming when humans are interacting with other humans, human-like
virtual interlocutors, and computer-like virtual interlocutors.

In Chapter 10 entitled ''Studying Psycholinguistics out of the Lab, the
authors, Speed, Wnuk, and Majid present three ways through which
psycholinguistic studies might be taken out of the lab, to the settings in
which more diverse samples might be collected, or to the situations in which
language is actually used in real life, thereby making it much more possible
to generalize the results of the psycholinguistics studies to the real-world.
The authors start with cross-cultural field studies, and highlight the
importance of doing research with a larger diversity of languages in the
field, considering the fact that manifold studies have been conducted with
participants from similar backgrounds. Later, studies conducted online or in
museums, which will enable researchers to reach a broader sample of
participants, are discussed. Psycholinguistic experiments are typically
administered in controlled settings so as to avoid confounding factors  in the
real-world context. However, the results obtained in these studies might not
reflect actual language use in daily life which is shaped by many external
factors. Therefore, lastly, the authors touch upon conducting studies in
real-world settings. For each one of these three ways of taking
psycholinguistics out of the lab, they present the rationale, practice,
advantages and problems of the studies as well as noteworthy example studies. 

In order to deal with and better understand complex interactions between
confounding and target variables; however, one might often need to
systematically manipulate target variables while keeping others under tight
experimental control. Computational modeling offers researchers the
flexibility in doing so. In Chapter 11 entitled ''Computational Modeling'',
the authors, Li and Zhao argue the significant contribution of computational
modeling to psycholinguistic studies. They provide an overview of two
approaches: the probabilistic approach and the connectionist approach. Some
basic probabilistic and connectionist algorithms are briefly discussed with a
focus on their implementation. What's more, several existing tools for varying
purposes are also introduced for those who are not familiar with computer
programming. Lastly, the authors clearly present model examples (covering the
architecture, stimulus representation, simulation and data analysis) for each
approach  without venturing into complex mathematical details. 

Chapter 12 is about the relation between corpus linguistics and
psycholinguistic studies. The authors, Brysbaert, Mandera, and Keuleers,
mainly focus on how to use word frequency data and semantic similarity vectors
in research. They build on the previous chapter by first touching upon the
importance of traditional distributional models, HAL and LSA, and introducing
new approaches. Chapter 12 also presents several software packages and a list
of useful websites currently available to those who aim to use corpus
linguistic tools in psycholinguistic studies. 

In Chapter 13, the authors, Rommers and Federmeier focus on
electrophysiological methods. They highlight the primary strength of EEG
(Electroencephalogram) in temporal resolution, and explain some important ERP
(Event-Related Potentials) components that have been used in language research
such as N400, P600, LAN (The Left Anterior Negativity), LRP (Lateralized
Readiness Potential), and MMN (The Mismatch Negativity). Introducing the
basics of EEG systems, the procedures and important issues in data collection
and analysis, the authors finally provide a comparison of EEG and MEG
(Magnetoencephalography). 

In Chapter 14, the authors, Willems and Cristia introduce hemodynamic methods,
namely fMRI (Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging) and FNIRS (Functional
Near-Infrared Spectroscopy). Both methods are indirect, non-invasive and
provide relatively high spatial resolution. The authors discuss  advantages
and disadvantages of fMRI and FNIRS separately due to their differences in the
nature of the apparatus, and the procedure of data collection and analysis
despite the fact that both methods ultimately rely on the change in oxygen use
in the brain region activated. Furthermore, the authors briefly compare fMRI,
a non-invasive, and PET (Positron Emission Tomography), an invasive method,
and later fNIRS with other neuroimaging techniques such as fMRI, EEG and MEG
in terms of their advantages and disadvantages in language research with a
diverse sample of populations. 

The authors, Forker and Catani, focus on the principles of structural MRI;
particularly diffusion imaging and tractography in Chapter 15, along with
their role in providing a better understanding of functional anatomy of
language in healthy brain or clinical populations. Inadequate though the
models are with low precision and accuracy of the measurements, the authors
suggest that the advancements are promising and the data can be useful when
meticulously analyzed with sufficient field knowledge and combined with those
obtained from other imaging modalities.

Baldo and Dronkers discuss the importance of lesion studies in understanding
the neural basis of language in Chapter 16. Upon a general introduction, the
authors predominantly focus on more recent approaches to lesion analysis,
namely voxel-based studies, in which a wide range of patients can be
simultaneously analyzed without dividing them into groups by lesion site or
clinical diagnosis. 

In the last chapter, de Kovel and Fisher present the contributions of
molecular genetics to language research. After introducing the basics of
genetic architecture, sequencing and genotyping techniques, the authors
discuss the extent to which inter-individual differences in language skills
can be explained with genetic variations by studying monogenic and
multifactorial traits. 

To conclude, the book covers a great number of methods currently available,
and it is definitely a useful guide for anyone who will conduct a study in the
field, given the clear, concise, but comprehensive explanations it provides
about each method. 

EVALUATION

Studying psycholinguistics and the neurobiology of language require an
appealing interdisciplinary perspective. Over many years, there have been a
myriad number of studies investigating the relation between language and mind,
the underlying mechanisms of language processing, comprehension and production
modalities, from a wide range of perspectives, from the very beginning of
forming an utterance to successful comprehension and production of complex and
abstract sentences, from pre-linguistic level to interactions with human-like
agents, or monitoring computational models. Even though several crucial issues
and controversies have arisen due to distinct scientific methods employed and
theories put forward, no one can deny that our understanding of human language
has advanced. To illustrate, the research on language in the brain has shed
light on the fact that there is not actually a certain language faculty
specifically and merely localized for controlling language processing as
proposed previously, but a neural network consisting of temporal, parietal and
frontal lobes, which are also functionally involved in the sequences of other
cognitive events.  However, we need to develop a richer understanding. Even
though there seems to be a functional neuroanatomy of language; for instance,
there is still no agreement on what kind of computation in the brain forms the
basis for linguistic representations and operations. Many long-running debates
have also remained unsolved yet. The ultimate factor appears to be the fact
that language is so complex, and thus a wider perspective is needed to reveal
what it actually involves. It will be only likely to make predictions on
observable linguistic phenomena interconnecting different levels of analysis.
The expectation is that creating a framework incorporating various tools will
allow us to generate and test explicit predictions about how human beings
acquire and process language(s). This book is a powerful collection of  many
methods, tools, software packages, seminal studies, and important references
presented by the pioneering scholars in their fields. That's why, I believe
that this book will be very useful for novice or experienced researchers, as a
guide for them to conduct studies      and to gain insights into different
angles of language research.                

With the book entitled ''Research Methods in Psycholinguistics and the
Neurobiology of Language, the authors aimed to introduce the currently
available methods used in the field. As mentioned in the Summary, the book
consists of 17 chapters, each with a focus on different methods used in
investigating the acquisition of language, the comprehension/production
process, and the neural and genetic basis of language. Difficult though it
might have been to guide the reader in the case of such      variety, the book
is successful in that it focuses on primarily behavioral, computational, and
neurological methods and presents them in a logical order: the book starts
with relevant research methods used with infants in order to understand
language development, and later introduces others used in order to understand
different aspects of human language processing. It is easy to read, and
enables the reader to gain a general view of the rationale, basic procedures,
and practical considerations of each method currently available to those in
the field of psycholinguistics and the neurobiology of language.  Thus, those
who want to familiarize themselves with any of these      methods can easily
understand the goals, benefits and limitations of each method, and follow the
outline of an example study presented in each chapter while designing their
own research.


ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Zeynep Başer is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Western Languages
and Literature, Kırıkkale University, Turkey. She received her BA and MA in
English Language Teaching from Middle East Technical University. She holds a
Ph.D. in Cognitive Science (majors in Psychology & Linguistics). Zeynep does
research in Psycholinguistics, Experimental Linguistics, Cognitive Science,
and Foreign Language Education.





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