University of Arizona
Psyc 542 Lexical Systems

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Syllabus

Instructor: Kenneth Forster, Rm 415B Psychology, kforster@u.arizona.edu

    The course will concentrate on key issues in the study of the human lexical processing system, with particular emphasis on visual word recognition. We will be concerned with the function and structure of the lexical processor as it relates to language use, and also as a way of studying broader issues such as priming, modularity, pattern recognition, information retrieval, associative memory, and neural nets.     The aim of the course will be to familiarize students with background theory, and also methodological issues. To achieve the latter, students will be expected to design and carry out an experiment using the facilities of the Psycholinguistics Laboratory. Part of the course will be devoted to training in the use the DMASTR system for mental chronometry. An introduction to this system can be viewed at the DMASTR HomePage.     This course will be of benefit to students with an interest in language, reading, and visual cognition. In addition, the coverage of priming issues will be of special relevance to students working in memory.

    Detailed topics will include modularity and the autonomy of language processing, techniques for measuring access time, phonological processes in reading, models of lexical processing, accessing ambiguous words, analysis of priming effects, semantic priming, repetition priming, form priming, morphological priming, and the nature of the bilingual lexicon. Special emphasis will be given to the theory of masked priming effects, and the implications of unconscious word recognition for a theory of consciousness.

Useful Texts (not required)

Taft, M. (1991). Reading and the Mental Lexicon. Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

An excellent introductory survey of research issues in visual word recognition -- very easy to follow. A copy is available outside my office.

Carroll, D.W. (1999).  Psychology of Language.  (3rd ed.) Pacific Grove, CA.: Brooks-Cole Publishing Company.

A general survey of research on language processes.  The 2nd edition is also OK. A copy of Chapter 3 is also available outside my office.

References

    References that are not available electronically will be located outside my office in the Psycholinguistics Lab (room 415a).  You can either read these in the lab, or take them away for photocopying -- but please return them as soon as you can (i.e. within an hour or so, not several days).

    Other references will be available through ERes.