Psychology of Language

Course goals

Content

People most often communicate through language. The use of language (speaking, listening, reading, and writing) is so ordinary and commonplace that we often forget that it is actually a highly complex and miraculous capacity, with its own specific laws and peculiarities. Understanding the properties of the language system is very important for understanding and clarifying the process of communication. Some questions that are discussed in this course are: (1) How do psychologists and linguists view the structure and functioning of the human mind and the place of language competence in it? (2) How is a language acquired: is there a difference between language acquisition by children and language learning by adults? (3) Which processes take place in our heads when we perceive and interpret written or spoken language? (4) Which disorders in the ability to use language are there, and how are they related to brain disorders (congenital or acquired)? (5) How and where is language represented and processed in the brain, and how can we make this measurable and visible? (6) Does language have a genetic basis? (7) How do participants in a conversation adapt to one another and how do they understand each other's intentions?

Additional information

This course is equivalent to:
Psychologie van taal (TW1V13002)

If you have already completed this courses, you may not take Psychology of Language due to too much overlap in content.