Understanding language processing in variable populations on their own terms: Towards a functionalist psycholinguistics of individual differences, development, and disorders

Classic psycholinguistics seeks universal language mechanisms for all people, emphasizing the “modal” listener: hearing, neurotypical, monolingual, and young adults. Applied psycholinguistics then characterizes differences in terms of their deviation from the modal. This mirrors naturalist philosoph...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Applied psycholinguistics 2023-07, Vol.44 (4), p.565-592
Main Authors:	McMurray, Bob, Baxelbaum, Keith S., Colby, Sarah, Bruce Tomblin, J.
Format:	Article
Language:	eng
Subjects:	Aging Autism Bilingualism Biology Children Cochlea Cochlear implants Cultural differences Grade 1 Hearing loss Individual differences Language Language disorders Language processing Lexical processing Medical philosophy Naturalism Pattern recognition Psycholinguistics Research Methodology Second language learning Sociocultural factors Towards a Just and Equitable Applied Psycholinguistics Traditions Word recognition Young adults
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Summary:	Classic psycholinguistics seeks universal language mechanisms for all people, emphasizing the “modal” listener: hearing, neurotypical, monolingual, and young adults. Applied psycholinguistics then characterizes differences in terms of their deviation from the modal. This mirrors naturalist philosophies of health which presume a normal function, with illness as a deviation. In contrast, normative positions argue that illness is partially culturally derived. It occurs when a person cannot meet socio-culturally defined goals, separating differences in biology (disease) from socio-cultural function (illness). We synthesize this with mechanistic functionalist views in which language emerges from diverse lower-level mechanisms with no one-to-one mapping to function (termed the functional mechanistic normative approach). This challenges primarily psychometric approaches—which are culturally defined—suggesting a process-based approach may yield more insight. We illustrate this with work on word recognition across multiple domains: cochlear implant users, children, language disorders, L2 learners, and aging. This work investigates each group’s solutions to the problem of word recognition as interesting in its own right. Variation in the process is value-neutral, and psychometric measures complement this, reflecting fit with cultural expectations (disease vs. illness). By examining variation in processing across people with a variety of skills and goals, we arrive at deeper insight into fundamental principles.
ISSN:	0142-7164 1469-1817