Thoughts composed by Angelica, Emmaline, Karen, Sarah, and Elise
All thoughts are based off of Crash Courses video. In this episode of Crash Course Linguistics, we'll learn about the field that studies where and how language happens in the brain, called psycholinguistics.
I found this crash course video to be super interesting! I think it was a great introductory video to the field of psycholinguistics and I love how enthusiastic the host Taylor is about linguistics.
I find it amazing as to what we can discover about our brain, but as well, as the things we have yet to uncover. I find it quite fascinating, and humorous, that swearing can reduce the pain we feel. As mentioned, the idea that we can sense the texture of sounds, finding them “sharp” or “round” is also an interesting factor in the way we process languages.
Our brain is so remarkable! Being able to acquire a variety of complex linguistic skills such as semantics and reading without much thought will forever amaze me. We generally don’t question why we say the things we do or are able to understand the language of others, but by watching this video, it really allowed me to visualize how our brain can receive and integrate so much info in a fraction of a second. Similarly, it is amazing how the brain can rewire itself and form new connections when injury or learning occurs. Understanding neuroplasticity really allows us to be supportive towards school age children and build empathy towards people who have suffered from a brain injury. Psycholinguistics is an amazing field to explore our complex and resilient brains!
An idea I found particularly interesting is ‘garden path sentences.’ These are sentences that demonstrate that we begin to evaluate what we are reading before we have read the whole sentence. It basically proves that we are constantly decoding information.
The question she posed at the end of the video is something else I’m certainly going to look into. She asked whether people who speak another language (not English) fluently have different brain structures than those who speak only English fluently. This idea ties into the notion that our morals and connotations about other beings changes based upon the dominant language of the person.
Finally, I had no idea that ‘tip of the fingers’ existed. I had heard of ‘tip of the tongue’ before, but I had not considered that sign language had its own version. It makes total sense, and I’m glad I learned that it exists.
I found the little “kiki bouba” experiment really interesting! I never asked myself the question of how we assimilate certain sounds to geometrical shapes. This is such a great overview of the field of psycholinguistics and the presenter is so dynamic that I didn’t even see time passing by. I enjoyed how she mentioned fMRI and EEG which were techniques I had heard of but I really liked how she compared both.
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