Word Form Retrieval in Spoken Word Production

<p>In the auditory picture-word interference task, participants name pictures whilst ignoring auditory distractor words. Previous studies have reported faster naming latencies when distractors are phonologically related to the target (e.g., tiger-typist) than when they are unrelated. By varying the position of overlap of the shared phonemes and the onset of the distractor, this task may provide valuable insights into the time course of phonological encoding. In the current study, participants named pictures while hearing distractor words that were: begin-related (e.g., letter-lesson); end-related (e.g., letter-otter); or unrelated to the target (e.g., letter-cabin). Distractor onsets varied from -200ms (before target) to +400ms (after target). The study was carried out in two phases: in the first phase, the task was administered to a group of 24 young control participants; in the second phase, it was administered to an individual with aphasia, NP, and a group of six older controls. Phonological facilitation effects of begin-related distractors displayed a fairly consistent pattern across the four distractor onsets for all participant groups. In almost all instances, these effects were significant but were noticeably stronger at early onsets especially around the onset of the target presentation, consistent with previous findings in the literature. Only NP showed strong begin-related facilitation effects at the latest onset. The end-related distractors however, produced somewhat different facilitation effects across the different groups. For the young controls and NP, these effects were stronger and significant at later onsets. The older controls only displayed marginally significant effects at 200ms after the target. Findings from the current study provide support for serial pattern of phoneme retrieval in multisyllabic words, in which a word‟s first syllable becomes available before later syllable(s).</p>

Word Form Retrieval in Spoken Word Production

<p>In the auditory picture-word interference task, participants name pictures whilst ignoring auditory distractor words. Previous studies have reported faster naming latencies when distractors are phonologically related to the target (e.g., tiger-typist) than when they are unrelated. By varying the position of overlap of the shared phonemes and the onset of the distractor, this task may provide valuable insights into the time course of phonological encoding. In the current study, participants named pictures while hearing distractor words that were: begin-related (e.g., letter-lesson); end-related (e.g., letter-otter); or unrelated to the target (e.g., letter-cabin). Distractor onsets varied from -200ms (before target) to +400ms (after target). The study was carried out in two phases: in the first phase, the task was administered to a group of 24 young control participants; in the second phase, it was administered to an individual with aphasia, NP, and a group of six older controls. Phonological facilitation effects of begin-related distractors displayed a fairly consistent pattern across the four distractor onsets for all participant groups. In almost all instances, these effects were significant but were noticeably stronger at early onsets especially around the onset of the target presentation, consistent with previous findings in the literature. Only NP showed strong begin-related facilitation effects at the latest onset. The end-related distractors however, produced somewhat different facilitation effects across the different groups. For the young controls and NP, these effects were stronger and significant at later onsets. The older controls only displayed marginally significant effects at 200ms after the target. Findings from the current study provide support for serial pattern of phoneme retrieval in multisyllabic words, in which a word‟s first syllable becomes available before later syllable(s).</p>

Second language experience influences salience of phonological units in spoken word production in the first language

Research question: Previous research suggests that the grain size of primary phonological units (PUs) in spoken word production is language-specific (e.g., phonemic segments in Germanic languages, and atonal syllables in Chinese). When the two languages of bilingual speakers have different primary PUs in their native speakers, will first language (L1) phonological processing be influenced by second language (L2) experience? Methodology: In a picture–word interference task, native Chinese speakers who spoke English as L2 were required to say aloud the predesignated L1 name of a picture while ignoring a written L1 character superimposed on the picture. The picture name shared a certain phonological component (i.e., rhyme or atonal syllable) with the distractor in the related condition but not in the unrelated condition. Data and analysis: Data of 186 participants from eight originally independent experiments were pooled. Multiple regression analyses were conducted on subject means to investigate whether the effects of rhyme relatedness and syllable relatedness on L1 naming latency were influenced by L2 self-rated proficiency, age of acquisition (AoA), and/or years of use. Trial-by-trial data were then analyzed with linear mixed-effects modeling. Findings: Both the rhyme effect and the syllable effect increased with years of L2 use, indicating that the salience of PUs in L1 spoken word production can be influenced by L2 experience. Originality: The current study adopted a chronometric approach to investigate the influence of L2 experience on phonological processing during L1 spoken word production. Importantly, multiple aspects of L2 experience (i.e., self-rated proficiency, AoA, and years of use) were examined at the same time in a relatively large sample. Implications: The current findings provide evidence for backward transfer of primary PUs in spoken word production, which demonstrates the plasticity of the phonological encoding process in bilingual speakers. These findings are discussed and compared with cross-language transfer of phonological awareness in the discussion.

Phonological Preparation in Korean: Phoneme, or Syllable or Another Unit?

With three experiments, the present study investigated the primary phonological preparation (PP) unit in spoken word production in Korean. Adopting the form preparation paradigm, 23 native Korean speakers named pictures in homogenous or heterogenous lists. In homogenous lists, the names of the pictures shared the same initial phoneme (Experiment 1), initial consonant + vowel (i.e., CV) body (Experiment 2), or initial consonant + vowel + consonant (CVC) syllable (Experiment 3); and in heterogenous lists, the names did not share any phonological components systematically. Compared to naming pictures in heterogenous lists, participants’ naming speed was significantly faster when the initial body or the initial syllable of target names was shared. However, this form preparation effect was not shown in Experiment 1, when only the initial phoneme was shared. These results suggested that the body serves as the primary PP unit in Korean, that is, native Korean speakers tend to plan spoken words in a body–coda fashion, probably due to a joint contribution from the strong prevalence of the CV structure and early literacy instructional approach.

EXPRESS: Mediated Phonological-Semantic Priming in Spoken Word Production: Evidence for Cascaded Processing from Picture-Word Interference

While there is consensus regarding a two-step architecture involving lexical-conceptual and phonological word form levels of processing, accounts of how activation spreads between them (e.g. in a serial, cascaded, or interactive fashion) remain contentious. In addition, production models differ with respect to whether selection occurs at lexical or post-lexical levels. The purpose of the present study was to examine whether mediated phonological-semantic relations (e.g., drip is phonologically related to drill that is semantically related to hammer) influence production in adults as predicted by models implementing cascaded processing and feedback between levels. Two experiments using the Picture-Word Interference (PWI) paradigm were conducted using auditory (Exp. 1) and written (Exp. 2) distractors. We hypothesised that a mediated semantic interference effect would be observable in the former with the involvement of both spoken word production and recognition, and in the latter if lexical representations are shared between written and spoken words in English, as assumed by some production accounts. Further, we hypothesised a mediated semantic interference effect would be inconsistent with a post-lexical selection account as the distractors do not constitute a relevant response for the target picture (e.g., drip-HAMMER). We observed mediated semantic interference only from auditory distractors, while observing the standard semantic interference effect from both auditory and written distractors. The current findings represent the first chronometric evidence involving spoken word production and recognition in support of cascaded processing during lexical retrieval in adults and present a significant challenge for the post-lexical selection account.