Reading Words and Wirds: Phonology and Lexical Access

Naming latency for printed words is inversely related to their frequency. Four experiments were run to test whether the naming of non-words that are homophones of words (pseudohomophones) is similarly influenced by the frequency of those words. McCann and Besner (1987) failed to find such a frequency effect for pseudohomophones when they were presented in a list of non-words. The present studies show that list structure is critical: A frequency effect occurs for pseudohomophones in a list only of homophones and in a list containing words. The list structure effect was found for three different stimulus lists and suggests that lexical access is strategic. If none of the items in a list has a lexical entry, then pronunciation may be the product of a non-lexical process. If all items have a lexical entry that may be accessed orthographically or phonologically, then pronunciation will be the product of a lexical process.