Experimental Psycholinguistics

Postgraduate course

Course description

Objectives and Content

Experimental psycholinguistics tests models of how the brain and the human cognition system carries out perception, production and representation of language. The course gives an introduction to current research questions in psycholinguistics and in experimental research methods through designing and carrying out one or more experiments. Ethical considerations in research on human subjects will be considered. The goal of the course is to provide a foundation for further experimental studies within human language perception and production.

Learning Outcomes

After successfully completing this course, students will be able to ...

  • describe important principles and methods in experimental psycholinguistics, including ethical concerns
  • design and carry out simple experiments, interpret the results and disseminate the activities in the form of a report.
  • express themselves in written form about an experiment and its results in a report in APA format.
  • have a critical view of one's own and others' experiments and results

ECTS Credits

15

Level of Study

Master

Semester of Instruction

Fall

Place of Instruction

Bergen
Required Previous Knowledge
None.
Recommended Previous Knowledge
EXFAC00SK, DASPSTAT. Basic knowledge of linguistics and statistics is desirable.
Access to the Course
Open to all who have been admitted to the master's program in Linguistics at the University of Bergen.
Teaching and learning methods

Teaching is done in lectures and through the design/programming of an experiment on a computer, execution of the experiment, statistical analysis and interpretation of the results, about 36 hours per semester. Furthermore, one to two hours of individual supervision is provided in connection with writing the report.

If fewer than five students are registered to a course, the department might reduce the teaching, please see the department's guidelines regarding this on "Mitt UiB". For courses where this is a possibility, the students get information about this at the beginning of the semester, and before the deadline regarding semester registration February 1 / September 1.

Compulsory Assignments and Attendance

Students must participate in the design and execution of experiments (either personal or laboratory work) during the semester. Obligatory learning activities must be approved before the student is allowed to take the exam in the subject.

The mandatory activities are valid only in the teaching semester.

Forms of Assessment

Supervised term paper with a length of about 4000 words (not counting references, appendices etc). The report should be written in APA format or another internationally accepted format for reports.

The exam can be submitted in Norwegian, Swedish, Danish or English.

Grading Scale
A-F
Assessment Semester
Fall.
Reading List
Introductory texts and scientific articles related to experimental psycholinguistics, about 400 pages.
Course Evaluation
Evaluation of the offered course will be carried out in accordance with the University of Bergen's quality assessment system.
Examination Support Material
Literature, library resources, references, data and tools indicated by the teacher. All used aids must be cited.
Programme Committee
Programme Committee for Linguistics