Course finder

Semester 1

The Psychology of Conversation (PSYL10175)

Subject

Psychology

College

CAHSS

Credits

20

Normal Year Taken

3

Delivery Session Year

2023/2024

Pre-requisites

Visiting students must be studying Psychology as their degree major, and have completed at least 3 Psychology courses at grade B or above. We will only consider University/College level courses. **Please see Additional Restrictions below**

Course Summary

The course addresses the question of how people engage in conversation - that is, the nature of the psychological processes that underlie our ability to communicate interactively. It considers such questions as how we build up shared knowledge with our interlocutors, how we make our utterances appropriate for them, and how we manage to take turns without the conversation breaking down. It draws on psycholinguistics, social psychology, the psychology of joint activity, and interactive neuroscience.

Course Description

The course addresses the question of how people engage in conversation - that is, the nature of the psychological processes that underlie our ability to communicate interactively. It considers such questions as how we build up shared knowledge with our interlocutors, how we make our utterances appropriate for them, and how we manage to take turns without the conversation breaking down. It draws on psycholinguistics, social psychology, the psychology of joint activity, and interactive neuroscience. Students will learn about the psychology of conversation, from a perspective grounded in the study of language processing, but in relation to a social (interactive) context. The course will therefore provide an unusually close integration of psycholinguistics with aspects of social interaction, and will also make reference to cognitive neuroscience, the psychology of memory, theory of mind, hearing loss, aspects of linguistics, and cross-cultural research. Students should appreciate the importance and difficulties involved in studying everyday communication in a rigorous scientific manner, and should learn how the study of conversation is relevant to psychology as a whole. Typical topics covered will include: 1. An interdisciplinary approach to conversation. 2. Conversation as a collaborative activity. 3. Perspective taking while speaking. 4. Perspective taking while comprehending. 5. Conversation as the alignment of representations. 6. Turn-taking: Preparing a response. 7. Turn-taking: Timing articulation. 8. Groups and communities. 9. Conversation under adverse conditions. 10. Eye movements in conversation and conclusions

Assessment Information

Written Exam 0%, Coursework 100%, Practical Exam 0%

Additional Restrictions

Unless you are nominated on a Psychology exchange agreement, visiting students are only permitted to enrol in one 3rd year Psychology course each, per semester, before the start of the relevant semester’s welcome period – and spaces on each course are limited so cannot be guaranteed for any student. Enrolment in a second course from this group will depend on whether there are still spaces available in the September Welcome Period, and cannot be guaranteed. It is NOT appropriate for students to contact staff within this subject area to ask for an exception to be made; all enquiries to enrol in these courses must be made through the CAHSS Visiting Student Office. This is due to the extremely limited number of spaces available in this very popular subject area.

view the timetable and further details for this course