ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Psycholinguistics

Psycholinguistics is a big word that means we are studying how we use language in our brains. Do you know what language is? It’s the way we use words, sounds, and symbols to communicate with others. That’s right, just like when we talk to our friends, family or teachers! When we use language, our brain has to do a lot of work, and that’s what we study in psycholinguistics.

Do you know that when you think about something, there are things going on inside your brain that help you think? Psycholinguistics is just like that too. We look at how your brain responds to different types of language. For example, we might look at why you can understand silly sounds like “baba” or “dada” when they don’t even mean anything in particular. We can also see how your brain processes language when you read a book or listen to a story.

Psycholinguistics is also about how we learn languages. Have you ever learned a new word or a new language? It can be tough! That’s because our brains have to work hard to learn all these new words and grammar rules. But don’t worry, once we get used to it, our brains start to do it more easily!

So, psycholinguistics tries to figure out how our brains learn and understand language. Sometimes when we learn a new language or talk with someone who speaks a different language, we might misinterpret what they mean. Psycholinguistics tries to figure out why this happens and helps us understand how we can communicate better with others. Isn’t that cool?