Effects of Syllable Frequency and Syllable Neighborhood Frequency in Visual Word Recognition

Three experiments were carried out to analyze the role of syllable frequency in lexical decision and naming. The results show inhibitory effects of syllable frequency in the lexical decision task for both high- and low-frequency words. In contrast, the effect of syllable frequency is facilitatory in the naming task. A post hoc analysis revealed the important role played by the number of higher frequency syllabic neighbors (words that share a syllable with the target) in the lexical decision task and the role of the frequency of the first syllable in the naming task. Experiment 3 manipulated the neighborhood syllable frequency directly by comparing words with few higher frequency syllabic neighbors and words with many higher frequency syllabic neighbors in the lexical decision task; an inhibitory neighborhood syllable frequency effect was found. The results are interpreted in terms of current models of visual word recognition and word naming.

[1]  R. Solomon,et al.  Visual duration threshold as a function of word-probability. , 1951, Journal of experimental psychology.

[2]  Heles Contreras,et al.  Frequency Dictionary of Spanish Words , 1964 .

[3]  T. Landauer,et al.  Structural differences between common and rare words: Failure of equivalence assumptions for theories of word recognition , 1973 .

[4]  K. Forster,et al.  Lexical storage and retrieval of polymorphemic and polysyllabic words. , 1976 .

[5]  Max Coltheart,et al.  Access to the internal lexicon , 1977 .

[6]  B. Bergum,et al.  Attention and Performance VI , 1978 .

[7]  R. Glushko.  The Organization and Activation of Orthographic Knowledge in Reading Aloud. , 1979 .

[8]  Marcus Taft,et al.  Lexical access-via an orthographic code: The basic orthographic syllabic structure (BOSS) , 1979 .

[9]  Ulrich Hans Frauenfelder,et al.  The syllable's role in speech segmentation , 1981 .

[10]  Janice Kay,et al.  One Process, Not Two, in Reading Aloud: Lexical Analogies Do the Work of Non-Lexical Rules , 1981 .

[11]  James L. McClelland,et al.  An interactive activation model of context effects in letter perception: I. An account of basic findings. , 1981 .

[12]  R W Schvaneveldt,et al.  An activation--verification model for letter and word recognition: the word-superiority effect. , 1982, Psychological review.

[13]  Rosaleen A. McCarthy,et al.  Reading without Semantics , 1983 .

[14]  D. Balota,et al.  Are lexical decisions a good measure of lexical access? The role of word frequency in the neglected decision stage. , 1984, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[15]  Anne Cutler,et al.  The syllable's differing role in the segmentation of French and English. , 1986 .

[16]  Salvador Algarabel,et al.  The University of Valencia’s computerized word pool , 1988 .

[17]  Salvador Algarabel,et al.  A voice-activated key for the Apple Macintosh computer , 1989 .

[18]  S. Andrews.  Frequency and neighborhood effects on lexical access: Activation or search? , 1989 .

[19]  James L. McClelland,et al.  A distributed, developmental model of word recognition and naming. , 1989, Psychological review.

[20]  A. Jacobs,et al.  On the role of competing word units in visual word recognition: The neighborhood frequency effect , 1989, Perception & psychophysics.

[21]  Kenneth I. Forster,et al.  Basic issues in lexical processing , 1989 .

[22]  J Grainger,et al.  Neighborhood frequency effects in visual word recognition: A comparison of lexical decision and masked identification latencies , 1990, Perception & psychophysics.

[23]  J. Grainger.  Word frequency and neighborhood frequency effects in lexical decision and naming. , 1990 .

[24]  N. Sebastián-Gallés.  Reading by analogy in a shallow orthography. , 1991 .

[25]  D. Besner,et al.  Visual Word Recognition: Evidence for Strategic Control of Lexical and Nonlexical Routines in Oral Reading , 1991 .

[26]  William D. Marslen-Wilson,et al.  Lexical Representation and Process , 1991 .

[27]  A. Jacobs,et al.  Neighborhood frequency effects and letter visibility in visual word recognition , 1992, Perception & psychophysics.

[28]  P. Tabossi,et al.  Semantic priming in the pronunciation of words in two writing systems: Italian and English , 1992, Memory & cognition.

[29]  M. C. Smith,et al.  Basic processes in reading : is the orthographic depth hypothesis sinking ? , 1992 .

[30]  S. Monsell,et al.  Lexical and sublexical translation of spelling to sound : Strategic anticipation of lexical status , 1992 .

[31]  Sally Andrews,et al.  Frequency and neighborhood effects on lexical access: Lexical similarity or orthographic redundancy? , 1992 .

[32]  B. Rapp.  The nature of sublexical orthographic organization: The bigram trough hypothesis examined , 1992 .

[33]  Manuela Carreiras,et al.  Estudio estadistico de la ortografía castellana: (1) La frecuencia silábica. , 1992 .

[34]  Jonathan Grainger,et al.  Chapter 7 Orthographic Neighborhoods and Visual Word Recognition , 1992 .

[35]  Ram Frost,et al.  Orthography, phonology, morphology, and meaning , 1992 .

[36]  C. J. Álvarez,et al.  Syllable Frequency and Visual Word Recognition in Spanish , 1993 .

[37]  G. Humphreys,et al.  Basic processes in reading : visual word recognition , 1993 .

[38]  R. Ratcliff.  Methods for dealing with reaction time outliers. , 1993, Psychological bulletin.

[39]  M. de Vega,et al.  Efectos diferenciales de la frecuencia silábica: dependencia del tipo de prueba y características de los estímulos , 1993 .

[40]  Ulrich H. Frauenfelder,et al.  Neighborhood Density and Frequency Across Languages and Modalities , 1993 .

[41]  Kenneth R. Paap,et al.  The case of the vanishing frequency effect: A retest of the verification model. , 1994 .

[42]  W. Levelt,et al.  Do speakers have access to a mental syllabary? , 1994, Cognition.

[43]  N. F. Johnson,et al.  A Cohort Model of Visual Word Recognition , 1994, Cognitive Psychology.

[44]  D. Norris.  A quantitative multiple-levels model of reading aloud. , 1994 .

[45]  James L. McClelland,et al.  Nonword pronunciation and models of word recognition. , 1994, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[46]  A. Jacobs,et al.  Models of visual word recognition: Sampling the state of the art. , 1994 .

[47]  M Taft,et al.  Bodies, antibodies, and neighborhood-density effects in masked form priming. , 1994, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[48]  M. Turvey,et al.  Lexical involvement in naming does not contravene prelexical phonology: comment on Sebastián-Gallés (1991). , 1994, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[49]  L. Katz,et al.  Neighborhood effects in visual word recognition: effects of letter delay and nonword context difficulty. , 1994, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[50]  D W Massaro,et al.  Visual, orthographic, phonological, and lexical influences in reading. , 1994, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[51]  Phonological, orthographic, and lexical codes: comment on Carello et al. (1994) , 1994 .

[52]  Jonathan Grainger,et al.  A dual read-out model of word context effects in letter perception: Further investigations of the word superiority effect. , 1994 .

[53]  Yasushi Hino,et al.  Neighborhood Size and Neighborhood Frequency Effects in Word Recognition , 1995 .

[54]  F. Cuetos,et al.  Diccionario de frecuencias de las unidades lingüísticas del castellano , 1995 .

[55]  Mark S. Seidenberg,et al.  The special role of rimes in the description, use, and acquisition of English orthography. , 1995, Journal of experimental psychology. General.

[56]  M. Turvey,et al.  Effects of association, frequency, and stimulus quality on naming words in the presence or absence of pseudowords , 1995, Memory & cognition.

[57]  J Grainger,et al.  Orthographic processing in visual word recognition: a multiple read-out model. , 1996, Psychological review.

[58]  J. Grainger,et al.  Masked Priming of Word and Picture Naming: The Role of Syllabic Units ☆ , 1996 .

[59]  Manuel Perea,et al.  Efectos de frecuencia silábica y vecindad ortográfica en la pronunciación de palabras y pseudopalabras , 1996 .

[60]  Kenneth I. Forster,et al.  No enemies in the neighborhood: absence of inhibitory neighborhood effects in lexical decision and semantic categorization. , 1996, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[61]  A. Dominguez,et al.  Lexical inhibition from syllabic units in Spanish visual word recognition. , 1997 .

[62]  A. Pollatsek,et al.  The effects of neighborhood frequency in reading and lexical decision. , 1998, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.