Psycholinguistics: what it is, objectives and research areas

One of the characteristics that most differentiates humans from other species is language, thanks to which humans have been able to evolve considerably over the years. Therefore, the study of language, while complex, has acquired great relevance in recent decades.

Psycholinguistics is that branch of psychology that allows us to analyze the process of both production and understanding of human language, as well as its acquisition at ages early

In this article we will explain what psycholinguistics consists of and we will also see the research areas that are within this branch that is linked to both psychology and linguistics.

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What is Psycholinguistics?

The appearance of the term psycholinguistics, took place in 1951 at Cornell University (United States), where a committee for the study of psychology and linguistics was created, which at that time was chaired by Charles Osgood, the famous American psychologist known for developing the scale known as "semantic differential", which allows to measure people's attitudes towards an issue, based on the choice of one word or another, found at the pole opposite.

Another pioneer in the field of psycholinguistics was Noam Chomsky, who explained that language must be understood as a systematic process composed of a series of principles and rules that fulfill their function at the cognitive level and are responsible for creating sentences in a spoken. This language scholar affirmed that children are capable of learning the mother tongue because they are biologically prepared for it, this mechanism being universal for all humans; However, for this it is also necessary that they be stimulated by their parents and / or caregivers.

Thus, psycholinguistics is the branch of psychology that is responsible for studying the way in which human beings process spoken language, that is, the way they understand, produce, acquire or even lose the ability to speak.

At the same time, he studies the cognitive processes that come into play when processing spoken language, and that is why psycholinguistics is considered today as a consolidated science within the general framework of cognitive sciences, possessing a very multidisciplinary character, as we will explain in greater detail more ahead.

This branch of psychology is located in turn between psychology and linguistics, using theories of both areas of knowledge to originate new research in order to understand the mechanisms underlying the psycholinguistics.

Likewise, psycholinguistics focuses on both psychological and neurological factors that influence spoken language, endowing psycholinguistics with a consideration as an experimental study area (p. g., studying the process of language acquisition during childhood or also the study of the learning process of a second language).

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Objectives of Psycholinguistics

Among the goals of psycholinguistics and language psychology to know and give an explanation of the psychological and neurological processes involved in the process of expressing oneself through language spoken, it is worth highlighting the following:

• Understand the process that the brain performs to decipher the messages it receives through spoken language.
• Study the processes involved in acquiring a language.
• Understand the process of producing the language spoken by people.
• Analyze the processes and structures of the brain that give the human being the ability to speak.
• Study the process of storing information in the brain.
• Analyze the functional organization of the ability that allows communication through language.
• Carry out the study of the evolution of language during the stages of development in childhood.
• Analyze the thinking of human beings.
• Analyze writing skills.
• Carry out a syntactic and semantic analysis of the language.
• Study the listening comprehension of the human being.
• Analyze the verbal expression.

These are some of the objectives of psycholinguistics from which studies and research in various areas, including those that we will explain in the section following.

Research areas of Psycholinguistics

Below we will briefly explain what the main areas of research of specialists who are dedicated to the field of psycholinguistics consist of.

1. Production of spoken language

This area of ​​psycholinguistics is responsible for study and understand the underlying processes that enable humans to produce language (for example, the way in which the information that someone tries to express through language is transformed into acoustic waves).

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2. Understanding spoken language

In this area the goal is to understand the way an acoustic signal can be interpreted as a language spoken by the person or group of people who have received this message through the ear.

3. Language acquisition process

This area is in charge of studying and analyzing the way in which a child acquires a series of skills that allow him to acquire the ability to speak throughout different phases.

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4. Disturbance or disorders that affect the production and / or understanding of language

It is the area of ​​psycholinguistics that is responsible for studying the various disturbances in the brain that can cause difficulties in expressing and / or understanding language (for example, the Wernicke's aphasia and the Broca's aphasia).

5. Study of thought and language

This area is responsible for studying the interrelation between thought and language, which enables a person to, among other functions, think before speaking or mentally analyze certain phrases you have heard. This also allows you to develop a series of arguments regarding a certain topic or express your own ideas.

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6. Neurocognition

It is the area of ​​psycholinguistics that is responsible for study and understand the different areas of the brain that are involved in both the production and understanding of language (For example, today we know that the broca area is a section of the human brain that is involved in the production of language).

As we can see, psycholinguistics, through its different areas of research, is in charge of carrying out a fairly complete analysis and exhaustive of the language of people, so it proves to be a very important area in scientific research and, in particular, in the psychology.

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Relationship with other areas of science

As we have seen, psycholinguistics is closely related to other areas such as psychology, linguistics and neurosciences. For this reason, we will briefly explain their relationship with some of them.

1. Psycholinguistics and linguistics

Psycholinguistics and linguistics have always been closely related since their origins, both being located within the information processing paradigm; and it is that these two areas have supposed two approaches that complement each other.

Students of psycholinguistics study cognitive processes and mental representations, while students of linguistics They are in charge of studying and understanding how to characterize the grammatical rules of language and the propositional forms that are used in natural language.

With regard to the understanding of language acquisition by humans, pure linguists are responsible for develop hypotheses to understand the initial state that is compatible with the ability to learn language, while Rather, linguistic psychologists focus on the cognitive mechanisms that make such learning possible, and for this, it is essential that they understand both the structure of natural language, such as, for example, the capacities of human beings to be able to process information in the mind.

It should be noted that there are various currents of the study of language, both within psycholinguistics and within linguistics, that use different approaches to do so.

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2. Psycholinguistics and neurosciences

There is a close relationship between psycholinguistics and neurosciences, since one of the most important objectives for psycholinguists is the study for the knowledge and understanding of information processing in the brain human. And it is that the processes that allow understanding and also producing language originate thanks to the functioning of the brain. Therefore, an exhaustive analysis of language production and processing requires an understanding of the underlying brain mechanisms.

An example of this is that there are numerous studies that have revealed that there are some areas of the hemisphere left that are closely related to the treatment of information transmitted through language (p. For example, Wernicke's area is the main area of ​​the brain in charge of the process of understanding language, and Broca's area is the one that is specialized in the production of language).