Phonological and conceptual activation in speech comprehension

We propose that speech comprehension involves the activation of token representations of the phonological forms of current lexical hypotheses, separately from the ongoing construction of a conceptual interpretation of the current utterance. In a series of cross-modal priming experiments, facilitation of lexical decision responses to visual target words (e.g., time) was found for targets that were semantic associates of auditory prime words (e.g., date) when the primes were isolated words, but not when the same primes appeared in sentence contexts. Identity priming (e.g., faster lexical decisions to visual date after spoken date than after an unrelated prime) appeared, however, both with isolated primes and with primes in prosodically neutral sentences. Associative priming in sentence contexts only emerged when sentence prosody involved contrastive accents, or when sentences were terminated immediately after the prime. Associative priming is therefore not an automatic consequence of speech processing. In no experiment was there associative priming from embedded words (e.g., sedate-time), but there was inhibitory identity priming (e.g., sedate-date) from embedded primes in sentence contexts. Speech comprehension therefore appears to involve separate distinct activation both of token phonological word representations and of conceptual word representations. Furthermore, both of these types of representation are distinct from the long-term memory representations of word form and meaning.     

Word-context effects in word naming and lexical decision

Stanovich and West (1983; West and Stanovich, 1982) demonstrated that lexical decisions to target words preceded by incongruous sentence contexts are inhibited more by these contexts than are naming responses to the same target words. They argued that this difference between the two tasks was due to post-lexical processing at the message level that is effective only in the lexical-decision task. The operations of the mechanism thought to underlie this post-lexical effect also predict that, under certain circumstances, the processing of target words congruous with the sentence context should be facilitated more in lexical decision than in naming. The present naming study together with an earlier lexical-decision study tested and confirmed this prediction for word targets following word contexts. The stimulus-onset asynchrony of context word and target word was also varied. This manipulation clearly affected the magnitude of facilitation, indicating that context-induced attentional processing can facilitate lexical access in word-context studies.     

Rapid processing of the meaning of sentences

It has been shown (Fischler & Bloom, 1979) that sentence contexts facilitate a lexical decision task for words that are highly likely sentence completions and inhibit the decision for words that are semantically anomalous sentence completions. In the present experiment, the sentence contexts were presented 1 word at a time, at rates from 4 to 28 words/sec. The facilitation for words that were likely sentence completions was marginal at the slower rates and absent at higher rates. In contrast, the inhibitory effects of semantic anomaly were apparent at all presentation rates. Several analyses suggested that the sentence contexts were becoming ineffective at the very highest presentation rates, but the high rates at which the sentence contexts still affected word recognition were taken as evidence that semantic information accrues at an early stage of sentence processing. Implications for Posner and Snyder’s (1975) theory of attention and for models of reading were discussed.     

Visual word recognition by bilinguals in a sentence context: evidence for nonselective lexical access

Recent research on bilingualism has shown that lexical access in visual word recognition by bilinguals is not selective with respect to language. In the present study, the authors investigated language-independent lexical access in bilinguals reading sentences, which constitutes a strong unilingual linguistic context. In the first experiment, Dutch-English bilinguals performing a 2nd language (L2) lexical decision task were faster to recognize identical and nonidentical cognate words (e.g., banaan-banana) presented in isolation than control words. A second experiment replicated this effect when the same set of cognates was presented as the final words of low-constraint sentences. In a third experiment that used eyetracking, the authors showed that early target reading time measures also yield cognate facilitation but only for identical cognates. These results suggest that a sentence context may influence, but does not nullify, cross-lingual lexical interactions during early visual word recognition by bilinguals.     

Effects of phonological similarity on priming in auditory lexical decision

Two auditory lexical decision experiments were conducted to determine whether facilitation can be obtained when a prime and a target share word-initial phonological information. Subjects responded “word” or “nonword” to monosyllabic words and nonwords controlled for frequency. Each target was preceded by the presentation of either a word or nonword prime that was identical to the target or shared three, two, or one phonemes from the beginning. The results showed that lexical decision times decreased when the prime and target were identical for both word and nonword targets. However, no facilitation was observed when the prime and target shared three, two, or one initial phonemes, These results were found when the interstimulus interval between the prime and target was 500 msec or 50 msec. In a second experiment, no differences were found between primes and targets that shared three, one, or zero phonemes, although facilitation was observed for identical prime-target pairs. The results are compared to recent findings obtained using a perceptual identification paradigm. Taken together, the findings suggest several important differences in the way lexical decision and perceptual identification tasks tap into the information-processing system during auditory word recognition.     

The Use of Lexical Prosody for Lexical Access of the Japanese Language

It has been suggested that English listeners do not use lexical prosody for lexical access in word recognition. The present study was designed to examine whether this argument could be generalized to the Japanese language. Two experiments using a cross-modal priming task were conducted. The participants made a lexical decision regarding a visual target following an auditory prime that was either the prosodically congruent or incongruent homophone of the target. In experiment 1, the primes were presented as complete words, and in experiment 2, they were presented as word fragments. In both experiments, the priming effects were observed only in the congruent condition. These results suggest that the prime activated only the representations of prosodically congruent words. We therefore concluded that Japanese listeners use lexical prosody for lexical access of their language and that the role of lexical prosody is determined language-specifically.     

Measuring lexical access during sentence processing

The results from “on-line” investigations of sentence comprehension are often difficult to interpret since it is not always apparent what component processes are reflected in the response measure. The results of two experiments reported here indicate that response latencies from phoneme-triggered lexical decision (PTLD) reflect the time needed for lexical access during sentence processing. Listeners were presented with sentences and were asked to make a word/nonword judgment for items beginning with a particular word-initial target phoneme. Speed of lexical access was manipulated by varying the semantic predictability of the target-bearing word. WORD judgments were faster for words that were preceded by semantically related verbs than were WORD judgments for words that were preceded by neutral verbs. The present results are consistent with other studies showing semantic facilitation of lexical access during the processing of fluent speech. It is argued that the phoneme-triggered lexical-decision task is a more suitable measure of lexical access during sentence processing than phoneme monitoring (Foss, 1969) or word monitoring (Marslen-Wilson & Tyler, 19751. In addition, it is pointed out that the phoneme-triggered lexical-decision task lends itself to modifications which should enable investigators to study various aspects of on-line sentence processing.     

Effect of backward priming on word recognition in single-word and sentence contexts

Backward priming was investigated under conditions similar to those used in lexical ambiguity research. Subjects received prime-target word pairs that were associated either unidirectionally (BABY-STORK) or bidirectionally (BABY-CRY). In the first experiment, targets were presented 500 ms following the onset of visual primes, and subjects made naming or lexical decision responses to the targets. Forward priming was obtained in all conditions, while backward priming (i.e., priming for pairs in which there was a unidirectional target-to-prime association, as in BABY-STORK) occurred only with lexical decision. In the second experiment, primes were presented auditorily, either in isolation or in a sentence. Targets followed the offset of the primes either immediately or after 200 ms. Backward priming occurred with both response tasks, but only when the prime was an isolated word. In addition, backward priming decreased over time with the naming task, but not with lexical decision. These results suggest that the locus of the backward priming effect is different for the two response tasks. Further, the lack of a backward priming effect with sentence contexts suggests that backward priming cannot account for the demonstrations of multiple access in the lexical ambiguity literature. These results, therefore, support a context-independent view of lexical access.     

Phonological code activation during listening

Rhyme priming to visually dissimilar rhymes (e. g., eight-late) was used in a lexical decision task to investigate the access and maintenance of speech-based codes in sentence comprehension. One member of the rhyme pair was embedded in a sentence and the other was presented visually for lexical decision. Rhyme priming obtained when the prime and target were separated by four but not by seven intervening words, suggesting that the phonological code for the word was initially accessed and then rapidly decayed.The research in this paper was initially presented at the 1982 Meetings of the Midwestern Psychological Association held in Minneapolis. This research was supported by NSF grant IST 80-2439 and by NIH grant HD 1619-01.     

Processing of threat-related information outside the focus of visual attention

This study investigates whether threat-related words are especially likely to be perceived in unattended locations of the visual field. Threat-related, positive, and neutral words were presented at fixation as probes in a lexical decision task. The probe word was preceded by 2 simultaneous prime words (1 foveal, i.e., at fixation; 1 parafoveal, i.e., 2.2 deg. of visual angle from fixation), which were presented for 150 ms, one of which was either identical or unrelated to the probe. Results showed significant facilitation in lexical response times only for the probe threat words when primed parafoveally by an identical word presented in the right visual field. We conclude that threat-related words have privileged access to processing outside the focus of attention. This reveals a cognitive bias in the preferential, parallel processing of information that is important for adaptation.     

句子语境中语义联系效应和句法效应的研究

通过对比研究句子语境中句法成分和语义联系对目标词加工的不同影响,来探讨句子语境的作用机制和作用点问题。实验一采用词汇命名任务研究发现,句法违反对词汇命名会产生抑制作用,而语义违反对词汇命名却没有发现抑制作用。实验二利用词汇决定任务发现,句法和语义成分影响词汇决定任务,句法违反和语义违反对词汇决定任务均会产生抑制作用。结果表明,句子语境加工中,对内容词语义整合过程中存在一个句法成分的独立加工水平。     

In search of perceptual influences of sentence context on word recognition

A major issue in the study of word perception concerns the nature (perceptual or nonperceptual) of sentence context effects. The authors compared effects of legal, word replacement, nonword replacement, and transposed contexts on target word performance using the Reicher-Wheeler task to suppress nonperceptual influences of contextual and lexical constraint. Experiment 1 showed superior target word performance for legal (e.g., "it began to flap/flop") over all other contexts and for transposed over word replacement and nonword replacement contexts. Experiment 2 replicated these findings with higher constraint contexts (e.g., "the cellar is dark/dank") and Experiment 3 showed that strong constraint contexts improved performance for congruent (e.g., "born to be wild") but not incongruent (e.g., mild) target words. These findings support the view that the very perception of words can be enhanced when words are presented in legal sentence contexts.     

Masked orthographic priming in bilingual word recognition

Two lexical decision experiments tested the influence of briefly presented orthographically related primes on target word recognition in bilinguals. The prime stimuli were high-frequency words either from the same language as that of the target or from the other language known by the bilingual subjects. When the prime and target were from the same language, orthographically related primes systematically inhibited target word recognition, whereas orthographically dissimilar primes did not. When the prime and target were words from different languages, the amount of inhibition increased as a function of subjects’ level of proficiency in the prime word’s language, with highly proficient bilinguals showing practically equivalent amounts of within and across language inhibitory priming. These results strongly suggest that a printed string of letters can simultaneously activate lexical representations in both of the bilingual’s languages (insofar as these share the same alphabet), even when subjects are performing a monolingual task.     

Priming word recognition with orthographic neighbors: effects of relative prime-target frequency

Four lexical decision experiments were performed with an orthographic priming paradigm in which test words were preceded by orthographically related or unrelated prime words. When prime words were presented for 350 ms without a mask, it was observed that primes that are lower frequency orthographic neighbors of the target interfered with target processing relative to an unrelated condition. When primes were higher frequency neighbors of the target, no interference or facilitation was observed. On the other hand, with briefly presented masked primes, interference was observed with higher frequency prime words. Finally, facilitatory effects in masked repetition priming were obtained with both high- and low-frequency prime-target pairs. The results are interpreted in terms of activation and selection processes operating in visual word recognition.     

汉语同形歧义词歧义消解的两半球差异

实验探讨汉语同形歧义词(homographs)歧义消解的过程及大脑两半球的差异。被试为华中科技大学96名大学生,实验采用词汇判断任务。句子语境呈现在被试的视野中央,探测词在SOA(stimulus onset asynchronism)为100毫秒或400毫秒时呈现在左视野或右视野。结果发现,(1)当SOA为100毫秒时,在左视野(右半球)上,与语境一致的同形歧义词的主要意义得到激活,与语境不一致的次要意义也有一定程度的激活。在右视野(左半球)上,只有与语境一致的同形歧义词的主要意义得到激活。(2)当SOA为400毫秒时,在左、右视野(两半球)上,与语境一致的同形歧义词的主要意义和次要意义都得到激活。结果表明,大脑左半球对汉语歧义词的歧义消解具有一定的优势,语境敏感模型可以较好地解释本实验的结果。     

Children’s and adults’ use of spelling-sound information in three reading tasks

This research examined the effects of irregular spelling and irregular spelling-sound correspondences on word recognition in children and adults. Previous research has established that, among skilled readers, these irregularities influence the reading of only lower frequency words. However, this research involved the lexical decision and naming tasks, which differ from the demands of normal reading in important ways. In the present experiments, we compared performance on these tasks with that on a task requiring words to be recognized in sentence contexts. Results indicated that adults showed effects of spelling and spelling-sound irregularities in reading lower frequency words on all three tasks, whereas younger and poorer readers also showed effects on higher frequency words. The fact that irregular spelling-sound correspondences affected performance on the sentence task indicates that access of phonological information is not an artifact of having to read a word aloud or perform a lexical decision. Two other developmental trends were observed: As children became more skilled in reading, the effects of irregular spelling were overcome before the effects of irregular spelling-sound correspondences; the latter effects were eliminated on silent reading tasks earlier than on the naming task.     

Excitatory and inhibitory priming by attended and ignored non-recycled words with monolinguals and bilinguals

Experiments examining identity priming from attended and ignored novel words (words that are used only once except when repetition is required due to experimental manipulation) in a lexical decision task are reported. Experiment 1 tested English monolinguals whereas Experiment 2 tested Twi (a native language of Ghana, Africa)-English bilinguals. Participants were presented with sequential pairs of stimuli composed of a prime followed by a probe, with each containing two items. The participants were required to name the target word in the prime display, and to make a lexical decision to the target item in the probe display. On attended repetition (AR) trials the probe target item was identical to the target word on the preceding attentional display. On ignored repetition (IR) trials the probe target item was the same as the distractor word in the preceding attentional display. The experiments produced facilitated (positive) priming in the AR trials and delayed (negative) priming in the IR trials. Significantly, the positive and negative priming effects also replicated across both monolingual and bilingual groups of participants, despite the fact that the bilinguals were responding to the task in their non-dominant language.     

Semantic facilitation and translation priming effects in Chinese-English bilinguals

In two experiments, semantic facilitation and translation priming effects in Chinese-English bilingual speakers were demonstrated with a lexical decision task. A 300-msec stimulus-onset asynchrony (SOA) was used between display of the prime and the target item. Experiment 1 showed that subjects' lexical decision responses were facilitated to a greater extent when primed by a translation equivalent than a semantically related between-language word. In Experiment 2, we found that pictorial, between-language, and within-language primes produced comparable effects of semantic facilitation. These results are in line with the hypothesis that lexical items in different languages and pictures are processed by means of an amodal conceptual system.     

词素位置概率在中文阅读中的作用：词汇判断和眼动研究

中文词切分的认知机制一直是心理语言学关注的焦点问题之一,研究发现中文读者可使用词素位置概率等语言学线索帮助词切分,而首、尾词素位置概率的重要程度以往研究观点并不一致。本研究通过词汇判断和眼动实验,考察中文读者对首、尾词素位置概率的利用情况。实验1a和1b采用词汇判断任务,考察在不同词频条件下词首与词尾词素位置概率对词汇识别的影响。在错误率和反应时指标上,高频词条件下词首与词尾词素位置概率效应不显著;低频词条件下词首词素位置概率效应显著,词尾词素位置概率效应不显著。实验2a和2b采用句子阅读任务,考察在自然阅读情境中被试对词素位置概率的运用。在凝视时间、回视路径时间和总注视时间指标上,低频词条件下词首词素位置概率效应显著,词尾词素位置概率效应不显著。高频词条件下词首与词尾词素位置概率效应均不显著。词汇判断和眼动证据共同表明,词素位置概率信息是中文读者重要的语言词切分线索,且与词尾词素位置概率相比,词首词素位置概率在词汇切分与识别过程中发挥的作用更大。同时,词素位置概率线索的运用会受到词频的影响,研究结果支持复合词加工的混合通达表征模型。     

Cross-modal repetition priming of heterographic homophones

In two cross-modal priming experiments in French, we investigated the effects of auditorily presented heterographic homophones (an English example is /meId/) on the subsequent visual recognition of the dominant (MADE) and subordinate (MAID) printed forms. When only pronounceable, regular nonwords were used as distractor items in the lexical decision task, both dominant and subordinate forms were facilitated by the homophone prime relative to an unrelated word prime. When pseudohomophones were added among the nonword distractors, dominant targets continued to show facilitation while subordinate targets showed an inhibitory trend. These results provide evidence for inhibition-based selection in the processing of ambiguous words in the absence of any biasing context.