A critique of top-down independent levels models of speech production: Evidence from non-plan-internal speech errors

A number of speech errors are examined which are difficult to account for by top-down serial processing models of speech production which hove independent levels of processing. In particular, most of these errors are characterized by the presence of an interfering element which is external to the utterance under current construction. This paper has two main aims: to classify these errors, and to examine the constraints upon them. It is found that phonological similarity between the target and intrusion is a major determinant of error occurrence. The consequences for models of speech production are discussed in a framework consisting of the architecture and control structure of those models. A particular model to account for these data is proposed, consisting of a spreading activation lexical network.     

Book reviews

Rosenbaum, D.A. (1991). Human motor control. New york: Academic Press. Pp. 411. ISBN 0-12-597300-4. $35.95.

Altmann, G.T.M. (Ed.) (1989). Parsing and interpretation. hove, Sussex: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Ltd. Pp. 376. ISBN 0-86377-143-2. £19.95.

Johnson-Laird, P.N. & Byrne, R.M.J. (1991). Deduction. Hove: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Ltd. Pp. 256. ISBN 0-86377-148-3. £14.95.

Singer, M. (1990). Psychology of language: An introduction to sentence and discourse processing. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. Pp xi + 308. ISBN 0-8058-0005-0. £21.50.