Bigram Frequency,Number of Syllables and Morphemes and Their Effects on Lexical Decision and Word Naming

There has been an increasing volume of evidence supporting the role of the syllable in word processing tasks. Recently it has also been shown that orthographic redundancy, related to the pattern of bigram frequencies, could not explain the syllable number effect on lexical decision times. This was demonstrated on a large sample of words taken from the British Lexicon Project. In this study we extend this research by examining both lexical decision and word naming times taken from the English Lexicon Project . There was a syllable number effect for both tasks in the expected direction, and this effect was independent of the presence of a bigram trough. The research also examined the role of other bigram related variables and the number of morphemes on lexical decision and word naming times. The number of morphemes had a significant effect on both word processing tasks, with words with more morphemes producing faster reaction times and also fewer errors. This pattern was reversed for nonword lexical decision times. The results are discussed in the light of recent developments in models of reading.     

Pseudohomophone Naming and the Word Frequency Effect

An experiment by McCann and Besner (1987) suggested that non-words that are homophonic with a high-frequency word (e.g. “keap”) are named in the same amount of time as non-words that are homophonic with a low-frequency word (e.g. “fome”), despite such pseudohomophones being faster to name than non-pseudohomophones (e.g. “feap”, “yome”). Such a result is a challenge to any model of lexical processing that places the word-frequency effect at the stage when the word is being selected from amongst all lexical entries. McCann and Besner propose a complex alternative account where frequency effects arise at a later stage of processing, a stage that is not involved in the naming of pseudohomophones. The purpose of the present study is to look for a frequency effect in the naming of pseudohomophones, controlling for orthographic factors that McCann and Besner ignored. The first experiment, using a homophone decision task, establishes a set of items that produce a clear frequency effect. These items are then used in a naming experiment which also reveals a clear frequency effect for those subjects who make use of a lexical route when pronouncing pseudohomophones. It is concluded from this that the complex model developed by McCann and Besner is unnecessary.     

The Role of Orthographic Neighborhood Size Effects in Chinese Word Recognition

Previous studies about the orthographic neighborhood size (NS) in Chinese have overlooked the morphological processing, and the co-variation between the character frequency and the the NS. The present study manipulated the word frequency and the NS simultaneously, with the leading character frequency controlled, to explore their influences on word lexical decision (Experiment 1) and naming (Experiment 2). The results showed a robust effect that words with a larger NS produced shorter reaction time than those with a smaller NS, irrespective of the word frequency and the tasks. This facilitative effect may occur due to a semantic network formed by neighbor words, resulting in the semantic activation to accelerate the word recognition. Moreover, the comparison of the effect sizes of word frequency between the two tasks showed that lexical decision responses demonstrated a larger word frequency effect, indicating that the sub-word processing was involved in the multi-character word recognition.     

Lexical Retrieval Deficit in Picture Naming: Implications for Word Production Models

In models of word retrieval, it is common to differentiate lexical-semantic (word meaning) and lexical-phonological (word form) levels. There has been considerable interest in the relationship between these two levels. The so-called discrete two-stage model claims that phonological activation follows selection at the lexical-semantic level and is limited only to the selected item. In contrast, nondiscrete (interactive and cascade) models assume that all activated lexical-semantic candidates are also phonologically activated to some extent. We addressed this issue by studying an anomic patient who suffered from a partial functional disconnection between lexical-semantic and lexical-phonological levels. A multitarget repeated naming task with phonological training was employed. Systematic manipulation of semantic and phonological relatedness between the to-be-named items indicated that our patient's word error patterns were sensitive to both types of lexical relatedness. A delayed repetition task employing the same items failed to show similar effects, suggesting that they were specific to naming. The discrete two-stage model is unable to explain the observed effects of semantic and phonological relatedness. However, they are consistent with assumptions of nondiscrete models of lexical retrieval. In addition to the theoretical implications of this study, the observed effects of lexical context on word retrieval have implications for treatment of anomia.     

Effects of Grammatical Gender on Picture and Word Naming: Evidence from German

The present study investigated the effects of prior grammatical gender information (masculine, feminine, and neuter) provided by a minimal sentence context on both picture- and word-naming latencies. Named targets were nouns or pictures of concepts featuring unambiguous grammatical gender. Simple sentence fragments were presented auditorily prior to each picture or word target; the relation between these sentence primes and the word or picture target was either gender-congruent, gender-incongruent, or gender-neutral. Relative to the gender-neutral baseline, reliable facilitation and inhibition effects were both observed in the picture-naming task. By contrast, only inhibition effects were observed in the word-naming task. The results suggest that the processes of picture and word naming differ qualitatively when gender information is precued. The findings are discussed with respect to the distinction between postlexical and intralexical loci of the effects of gender context on word recognition and production.     

The Effect of the Balance of Orthographic Neighborhood Distribution in Visual Word Recognition

The present study investigated whether the balance of neighborhood distribution (i.e., the way orthographic neighbors are spread across letter positions) influences visual word recognition. Three word conditions were compared. Word neighbors were either concentrated on one letter position (e.g.,nasse/basse-lasse-tasse-masse) or were unequally spread across two letter positions (e.g.,pelle/celle-selle-telle-perle), or were equally spread across two letter positions (e.g.,litre/titre-vitre-libre-livre). Predictions based on the interactive activation model [McClelland & Rumelhart (1981). Psychological Review, 88, 375–401] were generated by running simulations and were confirmed in the lexical decision task. Data showed that words were more rapidly identified when they had spread neighbors rather than concentrated neighbors. Furthermore, within the set of spread neighbors, words were more rapidly recognized when they had equally rather than unequally spread neighbors. The findings are explained in terms of activation and inhibition processes in the interactive activation framework.     

汉语字词识别中词频和语义透明度的交互作用

该研究通过词汇判断作业考察了中文双字合成词的心理表征问题。目标刺激为高频透明、高频不透明、低频透明、低频不透明词各12个和48个假词,被试任务为即既又准的判断目标刺激是否是一个词。结果发现,高频词的词汇判断速度快于低频词,透明词的词汇判断速度快于不透明词,词频和语义透明度有显著的交互作用。透明度对低频词的识别所起的作用大于对高频词的识别所起的作用。     

The Impact of Sonority on Onset-Rime and Peak-Coda Lexical Decision and Naming of Lexical Items by Children with Different Spelling Ability

The present study used the lexical decision (making YES/NO decision) and the vocalization (naming) paradigms in two reaction time experiments to examine the cohesiveness of onset-rime and peak-coda in the syllable structure of English lexical items. The aim was to study the effect of sonority hierarchy of liquids, nasals and obstruents on the accurate and rapid identification and naming of CCVCC words and pseudowords in relation to the spelling performance of 222 grades 4, 5 and 6 students. In the onset-rime lexical decision and naming tasks nasals were processed faster than the liquids and the obstruents. In the peak-coda lexical decision and naming the obstruents were processed faster than the liquids and nasals. The reaction time results suggest relationship with the spelling of English words even though the significant main effects of grade, spelling performance, mode of response and lexicality of the stimulus items need to be interpreted in the context of statistical interactions.     

Semantic Degradation and Lexical Access in Age-Related Naming Failures

This study investigated the impaired lexical access and semantic degradation hypotheses as two potential explanations of naming failures in normal aging. Naming responses on the Boston Naming Test (BNT) and Action Naming Test (ANT) were analyzed across three test sessions for 39 adults from three age groups (50s, 60s, and 70s). Failures to name before and after cues were classified as either impaired access if failures occurred at an earlier test session followed by successful naming at a later test session or semantic degradation if naming was successful at an earlier test session followed by failures at a later test session. The results indicated that on both the BNT and ANT all age groups produced more naming failures attributed to impaired access than to semantic degradation. However, for object naming, the failures showed significantly more semantic degradation for people in their 70s compared to the younger age groups. By contrast, for action naming, semantic degradation was negligible, possibly masked by a ceiling effect, and the only age-difference result that approached significance indicated that adults in their 70s produced more naming failures attributed to impaired access than adults in their 50s.     

Picture Naming and Lexical Access in Italian Children and Adults

Italian-speaking adults and 5- to 6-year-old children were compared in a timed picture-naming task, measuring latency as well as name agreement, in relation to frequency, age of acquisition (AoA), picture complexity, word length, word complexity, semantic category, phonological characteristics, and grammatical gender. Although children were slower and less accurate than adults, correlations of dependent variables with lexical predictors were similar in both groups. However, word complexity had effects on adults that were not seen in children, and grammatical gender had effects on children that were not seen in adults. Adult ratings of AoA had strong effects on both groups, but an objective measure of AoA only affected children. Adult and child reaction times were also differentially affected by semantic category (especially animal names). Results have implications for developmental and cross-linguistic studies of lexical access, in and out of context.     

高低字频对汉字记忆中错误联接的影响

通过实验考察高低字频对汉字记忆中错误联接的影响.实验表明,汉字再认记忆中出现了频率的镜子效应,但在反应时间限制下,镜子效应中对学习词的正确再认率的差异消失.被试对低频联合诱字的错误再认率高于高频联合诱字.无论是高频字还是低频字,被试对联合诱字的反应时都长于对学习字和无关字的反应时.研究结果可用修正后的激活混淆来源理论(source of activation confusion,SAC)解释.     

语素位置对中级汉语学习者并列式复合词识别的影响

在启动范式中,通过考察语素位置对中级汉语学习者复合词识别的影响,探讨中级汉语学习者复合词表征中是否存在语素表征。研究结果发现语素的位置影响复合词加工。当启动词和目标词中的共同语素分别位于词尾时,相对于共同语素位于词首或分别位于启动词和目标词的不同位置时,词汇判断正确率最低,而且反应时间最长。支持中级水平的汉语学习者在复合词表征中形成了语素表征。     

The Interplay of Word Formation Type, Affixal Homonymy, and Productivity in Lexical Processing: Evidence from a Morphologically Rich Language

This study addresses the role of three factors in morphological processing of visually presented words in Finnish: word formation type (inflection versus derivation), productivity, and affixal homonymy. Three visual lexical decision experiments show that complex words can be processed slower, equally fast, or even faster than comparable monomorphemic word forms. We will argue that this diverse pattern of results reflects the ways different complex words are stored and processed. Moreover, it indicates that the balance of storage and computation crucially depends on the interplay of the three above-mentioned factors. Surprisingly, our results converge in a manner consistent with data obtained from a typologically very different language, namely Dutch.     

汉语单字词的通达:词频和累计频率的作用

用字判断任务考察单字词的词频和累计频率(字频)的作用。实验一发现单字词有词频效应,词频和词素频率没有交互作用。实验二同时发现了累计频率和词频的作用。结果表明单字词的词素频率被部分累计,其词频和累计频率共同影响其加工,支持了汉语词汇加工的双频作用特点,也为匹配汉字频率提供了新的证据。     

Differences in Noun and Verb Processing in Lexical Decision Cannot be Attributed to Word Form and Morphological Complexity Alone

It has been suggested that the effect of word category in noun and verb processing reflects typical word class properties, which can be characterized in terms of semantic as well as syntactic and morphological features. The present study is aimed at differentiating and discussing the relative contribution of these aspects with a main focus on syntactic and morphological processing. Experiment 1 established a processing advantage for nouns in German visual lexical decision, using nouns denoting biological and man-made objects as compared to transitive and intransitive verbs. Experiment 2 showed that the noun advantage persisted even when the morphological differences between word categories were reduced by using identical suffixes in nouns and verbs. Overall results suggest that the processing differences cannot be reduced to variables such as frequency, word form, or morphological complexity. Reaction time differences between transitive and intransitive verbs strengthen the role of syntactic information. In line with previous accounts the observed effects are discussed in terms of a category-specific combination of linguistic parameters.     

Lexical status of inflectional and derivational suffixes: Evidence from Finnish

The present study tested whether Finnish inflectional or derivational suffixes have lexical access units separate from word roots. In three lexical decision experiments, pseudowords carrying a case-inflection required significantly longer rejection times than nonaffixed pseudowords. This suggests that case-inflections have separate lexical access units. Similar effects were obtained for productive derivational suffixes, too. A specific lexical architecture, being able to account for both the present pseudoword results as well as earlier ones obtained with real Finnish nouns, is proposed.     

Word matching and Lexical Decisions: A Visual Half-Field study

In unilateral Visual Half-Field tasks visuospatial and linguistic processing were compared. In a Word Matching task subjects judged the physical identity of simultaneously presented pairs of three-letter words or legal nonwords. No mainfield effects were found, but word pairs were recognized better and faster as "same" than nonword pairs. Latencies and errors in "different" pairs increased monotonically with position of letter change in the left but not in the right visual field (RVF), suggesting a serial, letter-by-letter way of processing for the right hemisphere and a whole word approach for the left. At this perceptual level the ability to store lexical information from the icon is stressed as a hemisphere-specific factor. In a Lexical Decision task the same subjects judged the same items on the word/nonword dimension. A RVF advantage associated with words as compared to nonwords occurred, as expected. Additional analysis suggests that order and difficulty of tasks may influence females' laterality, as compared to that of males.     

Visual Attention and Lexical Involvement in L1 and L2 Word Processing: Emotional Stroop Effect

Journal of Psycholinguistic Research - Given the fact that the process of engaging and interacting with the text is not only the function of a reader but also the text itself, the current study...