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Introduction:Tescopeofappliedpsycholinguistics
Fromtheverybeginning,appliedpsycholinguisticsnaturallydevelopedits
ownresearchmethodology.Intheheydayofbehavioristtheories,behavioral
tasksdominated,andthusresearcherswouldexposetheirsubjectstostimuli
andmeasureforexamplereactiontimesinlexicaldecisiontasksbytheir
respondents(Forster&Chambers,1973;Fischler,1977).Languageprocesses
were(andstillare)investigatedbymeansofstudyinglanguageproduction
errorsthrougherroranalysis(Corder,1981),butmorerecentlyalsobysimul-
taneousintrospectiontasksandthink-aloudprotocolsanalysis(Krings,1986;
Zimmermann&Schneider,1986;Gabryś-Barker,2005).Technologicaldevel-
opmenthasfacilitatedtheexpansionofmethodologiesinvestigatinglanguage
processingbothincomprehensionandproductioncontextsoflanguageuse.
KeithRaynerwasalreadyusingeye-movementdatain1978todiscussread-
ingprocesses,thuspioneeringeye-tracking,amethodthatveryquicklygained
recognitionandnownumerousexperimentsinonlinelanguageprocessing
arecarriedoutwiththeuseofaneye-tracker.Also,neuroimagingtechniques,
whichwerefirstimplementedonlyinclinicaltherapywithbrain-damaged
patients,arenowusedinpsycholinguisticprojects(e.g.Hagoortetal.,1996).
TeseincludePET(positronemissiontomography),whichallowsustolocal-
izediferentneuralfunctions,fMRI(functionalmagneticresonanceimaging),
whichshowswhichareasofthebrainareactivatedatanygivenmoment,ERP
(eventrelatedpotential),whichfocusesonthetimingaspectofbrainactiva-
tionratherthantheareasactivated,andEEG(electroencephalogram),whichis
arecordingofthenaturalrhythmsofthebrain,givingevidencethatthetiming
ofneuralprocessingcanbearesponsetoacertainexternalstimulus(e.g.
visual).Developmentsintheareaofinformationtechnologyontheotherhand,
havebroughtintobeingcomputationalmodelingemployedbyColtheartetal.
(1993)inword-recognitiontasksorMcClellandandElman’s(1986)exampleof
aspeechperceptionmodel,TRACE.
Toseeappliedpsycholinguisticsasaresearchdomaininitsownrightisto
emphasizeapplicationofpsycholinguisticresearchresults.Tispragmaticaspect
isdemonstratedinthecontributionstothisvolume.EachoftheAuthorsworks
intheSectionofAppliedPsycholinguistics,withthesingleexceptionofJoanna
Nykiel,whowasinvitedtocontributetothisvolumebecauseofherresearch
experiencewithfairlynoveleye-trackingtechnologiesinappliedpsycholinguis-
ticresearch.
Tisvolumeispredominantlymeantforundergraduate(B.A.),post-graduate
(M.A.)andPh.D.studentsofforeignlanguages,aswellasforprospectiveteachers
andtranslatorslinterpreters,forwhomappliedpsycholinguisticissuesconstitute
afundamentalknowledgebaseforexercisingfutureprofessionalactivity.Inthe
caseofforeignlanguageteachers,thisknowledgewillcontributetotheirunder-
standingoflanguageacquisitionllearningprocesses,andcommunicationand
interactionbetweenpeopletomakethemmoreefectivecommunicators(e.g.in
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