Like a dictionary physical, our b contains information about words. This includes the letters, sounds, and meaning, or semantics, of the words, as well as information about the parts of the speech and how to put words together to form grammatical sentences. Our “mental dictionary” It’s also like a dictionary synonyms that can help us connect words and see how they are similar in meaning, sound, or spelling
As a researcher studying the recovery of wordsor how these are extracted from the memory quickly and accurately to communicate, I am intrigued by how words are organized in our “mental dictionaries.”
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Your mental dictionary
Although a dictionary physical is useful for sharing knowledge, our mental dictionary is customized based on our experiences individual. The words that are in my mental dictionary may overlap with the mental dictionary of another person who also speaks the same language, but there will also be many differences between the content of our dictionaries.
You add words to your mental dictionary through your educational, occupational, cultural, and other life experiences. This customization also means that the size of mental dictionaries is a little different from person to person and varies by age.
The researchers found that the average 20-year-old American English speaker knows about 42 thousand wordsand this number increases by about 48 thousand by age 60.
At this point, you may be imagining your mental dictionary as a book with pages of words in alphabetical order that you can flip through as needed. While that analogy is useful, there is much debate about how mental dictionaries are organized. Many scholars agree that it is probably not a book arranged alphabetically.
While a physical dictionary is useful for sharing knowledge, our mental dictionary is personalized based on our individual experiences.
Although not accepted as exact, the appearance of the theory of grandmother’s cells suggesting that certain parts of the brain are more important for some types of information that others are probably true.
For example, the left temporal lobe on the side of the brain has many regions that are important for prosecution of the languageincluding word retrieval and production.
Rather a single neuron responsible for processing a concepta model called parallel distributed processing proposes that large networks of neurons throughout the brain work together to generate word knowledge when activated together.
For example, when I say the word “dog,” there are many different aspects of the word that you brain is recovering, even if unconsciously. You may be thinking about how a dog smells after being out in the rain, what a dog sounds like when he barks, or how a dog feels when you pet him. You may be thinking about a specific dog you grew up with, or you may have a variety of emotions about dogs based on your past experiences with them. All of these different “dog” characteristics are processed in slightly different parts of your brain.
One of the reasons why your mental dictionary cannot be like a physical dictionary is that it is dynamic and easily accessible.
Using your mental dictionary
One of the reasons why your mental dictionary cannot be like a physical dictionary is that it is dynamic and easily accessible.
The capacity of your brain for recovering a word is very fast. In one study, the researchers mapped the time course of word retrieval among 24 college students by recording their brain activity while they named images. They found evidence that participants selected words within 200 milliseconds of seeing the image.
After selecting the word, his brain continued processing information about that word, such as what sounds are needed to say the chosen word and ignoring the words related. This is why you can retrieve words so quickly in real-time conversations, often so fast that you pay little attention. attention aware to that process.
Until… you have a problem with word retrieval. A common failure in word retrieval is called the tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon. It’s the feeling of knowing what word you want to use, but you can’t find it at the moment. You may even know specific details about the word you want, such as other words with similar meaning or perhaps the first letter or sound of that word. Given enough time, the word she wanted might appear in his mind.
Fortunately, there are treatments available that can help someone Improve your word retrieval ability. For example, him semantic feature analysis It focuses on strengthening the semantic relationships between words. There are also treatments such as phonomotor treatment that focuses on strengthening the selection and production of speech sounds necessary for the production of words. There are even apps that provide word recovery therapy remotely on phones or computers.
The next time you have a conversation, take a moment to reflect on why you chose the words specific ones you chose. Remember that the words you use and the mental dictionary you have are part of what makes you and your voice unique.
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*Assistant Professor of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University at Buffalo.