Psycholinguistics (the Psychology of Language) uses a scientific approach to study how humans acquire, comprehend, and produce language. Because most of the processes that support language are unconscious, psycholinguists develop creative measures to give insight into these “unseen” processes. This course will cover historical and contemporary theories and research on human language, including topics such as speech perception and comprehension, word recognition and reading, language production, bilingualism, sign language, and language disorders such as dyslexia and aphasia. In addition to studying these content areas, this course will foster several skills that are important for a variety of industry jobs and for graduate study in psychology. Students will further develop the research methods skills learned in PSYC 200 by studying how research is designed to measure human language abilities. Statistics skills learned in PSYC 211 will be applied and expanded through projects that include data analysis and interpretation. Students will be introduced to statistical analysis in R and will expand their data interpretation skills. The course will also foster practical skills by emphasizing productive collaborations and through the development of written and oral communication skills. The course will culminate with each student writing an APA-style research paper.
Prerequisite: PSYC 200 or PSYC 211; or permission of instructor