The bigram trough hypothesis and the syllable number effect in lexical decision

There has been an increasing volume of evidence supporting the role of the syllable in various word processing tasks. It has, however, been suggested that syllable effects may be caused by orthographic redundancy. In particular, it has been proposed that the presence of bigram troughs at syllable boundaries cause what are seen as syllable effects. We investigated the bigram trough hypothesis as an explanation of the number of syllables effect for lexical decision in five-letter words and nonwords from the British Lexicon Project. The number of syllables made a significant contribution to prediction of lexical decision times along with word frequency and orthographic similarity. The presence of a bigram trough did not. For nonwords, the number of syllables made a significant contribution to prediction of lexical decision times only for nonwords with relatively long decision times. The presence of a bigram trough made no contribution. The evidence presented suggests that the bigram trough cannot be an explanation of the syllable number effect in lexical decision. A comparison of the results from words and nonwords is interpreted as providing some support for dual-route models of reading.     

Sublexical and morphological information in speech processing

Three experiments investigated the impact of syllabic boundary information and of morphological structure on performance in a sequence-monitoring task. In sequence monitoring, participants detect pre-specified sequences of phonemes in spoken carrier words. Sequences corresponded to the first syllable of the carrier word, to its first morpheme, or simultaneously to both. The data from Experiments 1 and 2, using different variants of the monitoring task, showed a strong impact of syllable boundary cues on monitoring latencies. An effect of morphological match between targets and carrier words was also evident. Experiment 3, in which parts of the spoken carrier words were cross-spliced, revealed that syllabic boundary information takes precedence over morphological information. The results are in line with an early process of speech processing, in which syllabic cues are used to aid lexical access. The morphological effect is better understood as a later, probably lexical, contribution of morphological decomposition to monitoring performance.     

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.     

Associated or dissociated effects of syllable frequency in lexical decision and naming

Most empirical work investigating the role of syllable frequency in visual word recognition has focused on the Spanish language, in which syllable frequency seems to produce a classic dissociation: inhibition in lexical decision tasks but facilitation in naming. In the present study, two experiments were run in German, using identical stimulus materials, in a lexical decision task and a naming task. In both tasks, there was an inhibitory effect for words with a high-frequency first syllable. This pattern of results, suggesting a stronger weight of lexical access in the naming process in German than in Spanish, is discussed with regard to the issue of stress assignment in the two languages and within the framework of word production models. Items, mean response latencies, and accuracy rates per item for both experiments can be downloaded from www.psychonomic.org/archive.     

Absence of syllable effects: multisyllabic [correction of monosyllabic] words are easier than monosyllabic [correction of multisyllabic] words.

The role of syllables using the conventional lexical task of naming was examined with 107 college students. Equal numbers of four- and six-letter mono syllabic and multisyllabic words were presented for naming. There were significant syllable effects for 4-letter words as in previous studies but not for 6-letter words. In stead, monosyllabic words take more time to process than multisyllabic words. Most monosyllabic words are exceptional words with irregular correspondence of letter to sound. These results confirm that letter-to-sound consistency is more important in word recognition than the number of syllables.     

Syllabic Effects in Italian Lexical Access

Two cross-modal priming experiments tested whether lexical access is constrained by syllabic structure in Italian. Results extend the available Italian data on the processing of stressed syllables showing that syllabic information restricts the set of candidates to those structurally consistent with the intended word (Experiment 1). Lexical access, however, takes place as soon as possible and it is not delayed till the incoming input corresponds to the first syllable of the word. And, the initial activated set includes candidates whose syllabic structure does not match the intended word (Experiment 2). The present data challenge the early hypothesis that in Romance languages syllables are the units for lexical access during spoken word recognition. The implications of the results for our understanding of the role of syllabic information in language processing are discussed.     

The nature of the syllabic neighbourhood effect in French

We investigated whether and how sublexical units such as phonological syllables mediate access to the lexicon in French visual word recognition. To do so, two lexical decision task (LDT) experiments examined the nature of the syllabic neighbourhood effect. In Experiments 1a and b, the number of higher frequency syllabic neighbours was manipulated while controlling for the first bigram. The results failed to show a pure syllabic neighbourhood effect. In Experiments 2a and b, syllabic neighbourhood and bigram frequency were factorially manipulated. The interaction showed that the syllabic neighbourhood effect was inhibitory when bigram frequency was high, whereas it was facilitatory when bigram frequency was low. Similar patterns of results were found in both the yes/no (Experiments 1a and 2a) and go/no-go LDTs (Experiments 1b and 2b), so varying task requirements of the lexical decision did not influence the effect. These findings are discussed in the context of parallel distributed processing and interactive-activation models, and suggest that orthographic redundancy properties contribute to the influence of phonological syllables.     

Effect of syllabic neighbourhood as a function of syllabic neighbour length

The concept of syllabic neighbours (words sharing the same first syllable) is central in the interpretive framework of syllabic effects in visual word recognition. However, the definition of this concept remains surprisingly vague, so it is not clear whether or not syllabic competition is driven by words of similar syllabic length. The present study aimed to refine the definition by investigating the effect of higher-frequency syllabic neighbourhood as a function of syllabic neighbour length (similar syllabic length to the target words vs. any syllabic length). In both standard and go/no-go lexical decision tasks, the data showed that increasing the number of higher-frequency syllabic neighbours had an influence only when this number was computed from words of the same syllabic length as the target. Syllabic neighbours may therefore be considered as words sharing the first syllable and the total number of syllables with the target. Implications for accounts of syllable neighbourhood effects are discussed.     

Attentional resource demands of visual word recognition in naming and lexical decisions.

Attentional demands of lexical access were assessed with dual-task methodology. Subjects performed an auditory probe task alone (single-task) or combined (dual-task) with either a lexical decision or a naming task. In Experiment 1, probe performance showed a decrement from single- to dual-task conditions during recognition of words in both lexical decision and naming tasks. In addition, decrements in probe performance were larger during processing of low-frequency compared with high-frequency words in both of the word recognition tasks. Experiment 2 showed that the time course of frequency-sensitive demands was similar across lexical decision and naming tasks and that attention is required early in the word recognition sequence. The results support the assumption that lexical access is both frequency sensitive and attention demanding.     

Picture–word interference reveals inhibitory effects of syllable frequency on lexical selection

While previous research has shown that high syllable frequency can facilitate speech production at the level of phonological/phonetic encoding, little is known about its influence on prephonological processes, specifically lexical selection. The current study used a picture–word interference (PWI) task to (a) shed light on the stages of lexical access where syllable frequency is relevant, and (b) inform as to whether lexical selection is accomplished via competition among activated word options. Participants named pictures whose names had high-frequency (HF) and low-frequency (LF) first syllables while ignoring phonologically related (same first syllable) or unrelated distractor words that were presented simultaneously. Word frequency was also manipulated, as half of the targets were HF words, and half were LF words. Results revealed inhibitory syllable frequency effects in all conditions, such that targets with HF first syllables were named more slowly than targets with LF first syllables. However, inhibitory syllable frequency effects were exacerbated in conditions thought to reflect heightened lexical competition, specifically in the presence of phonologically related distractors and for targets with low word frequency. These findings reveal novel evidence for first-syllable frequency effects on lexical selection and offer further support for models proposing delays at lexical selection due to activation of nontarget competitors.     

汉语多义单字词的识别优势效应

运用词汇判断、简单命名及辨别命名任务,考察汉语多义单字词的识别优势效应。结果显示,在三个任务中均发现了显著的多义词识别优势效应。在词汇判断和简单命名任务中,多义词识别的优势效应表现在低频词中;在辨别命名任务中,多义词识别优势效应同时表现在高、低频词中。实验结果支持了PDP模型,讨论了多义词识别优势效应产生的机制     

The syllable’s role in word naming

In a series of experiments, the masked priming paradigm with very brief prime exposures was used to investigate the role of the syllable in the production of English. Experiment 1 (word naming task) showed a syllable priming effect for English words with clear initial syllable boundaries (such as BALCONY), but no effect with ambisyllabic words targets (such as BALANCE, where the /l/ belongs to both the first and the second syllables). Experiment 2 failed to show such syllable priming effects in the lexical decision task. Experiment 3 demonstrated that for words with clear initial syllable boundaries, naming latencies were faster only when primes formed the first syllable of the target, in comparison with a neutral condition. Experiment 4 showed that the two possible initial syllables of ambisyllabic words facilitated word naming to the same extent, in comparison with the neutral condition. Finally, Experiment 5 demonstrated that the syllable priming effect obtained for CV words with clear initial syllable boundaries (such as DIVORCE) was not due to increased phonological and/or orthographic overlap. These results, showing that the syllable constitutes a unit of speech production in English, are discussed in relation to the model of phonological and phonetic encoding proposed by Levelt and Wheeldon (1994).     

Syllables and morphemes: contrasting frequency effects in Spanish

Three types of sublexical units were studied in Spanish visual word recognition: the syllable, the basic orthographic syllabic structure (BOSS), and the root morpheme. In Experiment 1, using a lexical-decision task, a typical inhibitory effect of the first-syllable frequency was found (while keeping constant the BOSS frequency) as well as the word-frequency effect. Experiment 2 examined the role of both the BOSS frequency and the word frequency, also in a lexical-decision task. Syllable frequency was controlled. Both the BOSS frequency and the word frequency showed facilitatory effects. However, in Experiments 3A and 3B, a facilitatory effect of the root frequency (when controlling for BOSS frequency) and a null effect of BOSS frequency (when controlling for root frequency) were found, suggesting that the BOSS effect is in fact reflecting a morpheme effect. A review of the current models shows that it is difficult to integrate syllables and morphemes in a unique model.     

Can we see syllables in monosyllabic words? A study with illusory conjunctions

Mathey, Zagar, Doignon, and Seigneuric (2006) reported an inhibitory effect of syllabic neighbourhood in monosyllabic French words suggesting that syllable units mediate the access to lexical representations of monosyllabic stimuli. Two experiments were conducted to investigate the perception of syllable units in monosyllabic stimuli. The illusory conjunction paradigm was used to examine perceptual groupings of letters. Experiment 1 showed that potential syllables in monosyllabic French words (e.g., BI in BICHE) affected the pattern of illusory conjunctions. Experiment 2 indicated that the perceptual parsing in monosyllabic items was due to syllable information and orthographic redundancy. The implications of the data are discussed for visual word recognition processes in an interactive activation model incorporating syllable units and connected adjacent letters (IAS; Mathey et al., 2006).     

Modeling lexical decision and word naming as a retrieval process.

We argue that rule-like phenomena in naming and lexical decision reflect the collapsing of information that occurs during retrieval from the lexicon, and that complex patterns in performance reflect the pattern of correlation that exists in the reader's lexicon rather than mapping rules wired into, or learned by, the processing apparatus. By using a lexicon built to scale, we show that simple retrieval operations applied to a large corpus of words correctly predict an interaction of word frequency by spelling-to-sound regularity in naming, a frequency main effect in lexical decision, sensitivity to orthographically defined syllable-like structures in lexical decision, and an interaction of number of syllables with word frequency in naming.     

Frequency effects with visual words and syllables in a dyslexic reader

The present study investigated the nature of the inhibitory syllable frequency effect, recently reported for normal readers, in a German-speaking dyslexic patient. The reading impairment was characterized as a severe deficit in naming single letters or words in the presence of spared lexical processing of visual word forms. Three visual lexical decision experiments were conducted with the dyslexic patient, an unimpaired control person matched to the patient and a control group: Experiment 1 manipulated the frequency of words and word-initial syllables and demonstrated systematic effects of both factors in normal readers and in the dyslexic patient. The syllable frequency effect was replicated in a second experiment with a more strictly controlled stimulus set. Experiment 3 confirmed the patient's deficit in activating phonological forms from written words by demonstrating that a pseudohomophone effect as observed in the unimpaired control participants was absent in the dyslexic patient.     

汉语双字多义词的识别优势效应

采用词汇判断法、命名法考察汉语双字多义词的识别优势效应。结果发现,在词汇判断任务中存在着多义词较单义词的识别优势,但这种识别优势只表现在低频词中。在命名任务中未发现多义词的识别优势。作者根据分布表征模型的观点对双字多义词的识别优势效应做出了可能的解释。     

Masked priming effects with syllabic neighbors in a lexical decision task

Four lexical decision experiments using a masked priming paradigm were conducted to analyze whether the previous presentation of a syllabic neighbor (a word sharing the same 1st syllable) influences recognition performance. The results showed an inhibitory effect of more frequent syllabic primes and some facilitation of nonword syllabic primes (Experiments 1-3). When monosyllabic pairs were used (Experiment 3), no priming effects of the 2 initial letters were found. Finally, when using only syllables as primes, latencies to words were shorter when preceded by primes that corresponded to the 1st syllable than by primes that contained 1 letter more or less than the 1st syllable (Experiment 4). Results are interpreted using activation models that take into account a syllabic level of representation.     

Naming multisyllabic words

The process of reading multisyllabic words aloud from print was examined in 4 experiments. Experiment 1 used multisyllabic words that vary in terms of the consistency of component spelling-sound correspondences. The stimuli were regular, regular inconsistent, and exception words analogous to the monosyllabic items used in previous studies. Both regular inconsistent and exception words produced longer naming latencies than regular words. In Experiment 2 these differences between word types were found to be limited to lower frequency items. Experiment 3 showed that effects of number of syllables on naming latency are also limited to lower frequency words when the stimulus display forced subjects to use syllabic units. Thus, frequency modulates the effects of two aspects of lexical structure-consistency of spelling-sound correspondences and number of syllables. The results suggest that the naming of multisyllabic words draws on some of the same knowledge representations and processes as monosyllabic words; however, naming does not require syllabic decomposition. The results are discussed in the context of current models of naming.     

Syllabic length effects in visual word recognition and naming

Two experiments investigated the role of the number of syllables in visual word recognition and naming. Experiment 1 (word and nonword naming) showed that effects of number of syllables on naming latencies were observed for nonwords and very low-frequency words but not for high-frequency words. In Experiment 2 (lexical decision), syllabic length effects were also obtained for very low-frequency words but not for high-frequency words and nonwords. These results suggest that visual word recognition and naming do require syllabic decomposition, at least for very low-frequency words in French. These data are compatible with the multiple-trace memory model for polysyllabic word reading [Psychol. Rev. 105 (1998) 678]. In this model, reading depends on the activity of two procedures: (1) a global procedure that operates in parallel across a letter string (and does not generate a strong syllabic length effect) and that is the predominant process in generating responses to high-frequency words, and (2) an analytic procedure that operates serially across a letter string (and generates a strong syllabic length effect) and that is the predominant process in generating responses to very low-frequency words. A modified version of the dual route cascaded model [Psychol. Rev. 108 (1) (2001) 204] can also explain the present results, provided that syllabic units are included in this model. However, the Parallel Distributed Processing model [Psychol. Rev. 96 (1989) 523; J. Exp. Psychol.: Human Perception Perform. 16 (1990) 92] has difficulties to account for these results.