Some Useful Readings

Whitney's (1998) Psychology of Language offers a broad coverage of the field. Pinker's (1994) Language Instinct and Altmann's (1997) Ascent of Babel are highly readable but personal accounts of the field of psycholinguistics.

Hartley's (2007) Psychology of Language (3rd Ed) offers the most extensive up-to-date coverage.

Introduction: The course is concerned with how people perceive, comprehend, produce and acquire language. This involves investigating the basic physical, sensory and physiological processes underlying speech perception and production, the organisation of the mental lexicon and the manner in which grammar is represented and processed in the human language machine. Often the basic mechanisms underlying language are illuminated by the manner in which language is acquired or lost. Accordingly, the course takes a close look at the manner in which young children acquire language, and at a variety of language disorders, both developmental and acquired.

Aims: The course of sixteen lectures is intended to provide an overview and appreciation of core themes in contemporary psycholinguistics.

Learning outcomes: Having attended this series of lectures and read the recommended background reading, you should be familiar with the principle explanations that have been advanced for a range of phenomena studied in psycholinguistics. You should also be aware of some of the research that has been undertaken to test those explanations, and you should have an appreciation of the variety of research methods employed in psycholinguistics together with their advantages and limitations.

Prerequisites: None, but some science background and an interest in language is desirable.