Reprogramming phonologically similar utterances: the role of phonetic features in pre-motor encoding.

The effects of phonologic similarity on speech production latencies were investigated to explore the role of articulatory phonetic features and reprogramming operations during pre-motor stages of production. A form-based priming technique was used in five experiments to elicit rapid productions of single words. Subjects responded to visually presented pairs of minimally contrastive monosyllabic words, which varied with respect to the phonetic featural similarity of their onsets. Factors that were systematically manipulated across experiments included stimulus set size, duration of the interstimulus interval, and the use of feedback to subjects concerning their response latencies. Speech onset latencies obtained in a control condition in which no phonetic features were shared were compared to four other conditions in which the word initial phonemes of prime-target pairs did share features. Results revealed that shared manner was the most influential factor associated with the observed inhibitory phonologic similarity effect. In addition, smaller stimulus set size (6 words) yielded significantly slower overall response latencies than experiments employing larger stimulus sets (18 words). These findings suggested that inhibitory phonologic similarity effects did not stem from biomechanical constraints imposed by the articulatory system. Rather the methods employed in this investigation were supported as a means to investigate both the underlying units of representation and the processes involved in pre-motor planning apart from articulatory effects. The results of this investigation also supported the hypothesis that, during phonologic encoding, word form retrieval entails the selection and assembly of sublexical units into word form frames. No evidence of whole word retrieval during pre-motor encoding was obtained. The potential utility of this experimental paradigm in the investigation of pre-motor planning in disorders that putatively affect the processes involved in transforming word meaning into word form is also discussed.

[1]  L. Colombo.  Activation and inhibition with orthographically similar words. , 1986 .

[2]  Gerard Kempen,et al.  The lexicalization process in sentence production and naming: indirect election of words , 1983, Cognition.

[3]  James L. McClelland,et al.  The TRACE model of speech perception , 1986, Cognitive Psychology.

[4]  Raymond D. Kent,et al.  Coarticulation in recent speech production models , 1977 .

[5]  Allan Collins,et al.  A spreading-activation theory of semantic processing , 1975 .

[6]  D. Meyer,et al.  Speech production: Motor programming of phonetic features , 1985 .

[7]  Victoria A. Fromkin,et al.  The Non-Anomalous Nature of Anomalous Utterances , 1971 .

[8]  Gary S. Dell,et al.  Structure and Content in Language Production: A Theory of Frame Constraints in Phonological Speech Errors , 1993, Cogn. Sci..

[9]  Gary S. Dell,et al.  The retrieval of phonological forms in production: tests of predictions from a connectionist model , 1988 .

[10]  Timothy D. Lee,et al.  Motor Control and Learning: A Behavioral Emphasis , 1982 .

[11]  K. Rayner,et al.  The psychology of reading , 1989 .

[12]  J. McCarthy.  Feature Geometry and Dependency: A Review , 1988 .

[13]  S. Goldinger,et al.  Priming Lexical Neighbors of Spoken Words: Effects of Competition and Inhibition. , 1989, Journal of memory and language.

[14]  Robert G. Crowder,et al.  The Modality Effect in Free and Serial Recall as a Function of Phonological Similarity. , 1974 .

[15]  Phonological Similarity Effect is Abolished by a Silent Mouthing Task , 1993, Perceptual and motor skills.

[16]  D. Meyer,et al.  Vowel similarity, connectionist models, and syllable structure in motor programming of speech , 1990 .

[17]  Louisa M. Slowiaczek,et al.  Prelexical facilitation and lexical interference in auditory word recognition. , 1992, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[18]  R. Conrad,et al.  Acoustic confusions in immediate memory. , 1964 .

[19]  G S Dell,et al.  A spreading-activation theory of retrieval in sentence production. , 1986, Psychological review.

[20]  V. Coltheart,et al.  Effects of Irrelevant Sounds on Phonological Coding in Reading Comprehension and Short term Memory , 1996, The Quarterly journal of experimental psychology. A, Human experimental psychology.

[21]  Stephen J. Lupker,et al.  Rhyme Priming of Pictures and Words: A Lexical Activation Account , 1989 .

[22]  Interference between phonemes during phoneme monitoring: evidence for an interactive activation model of speech perception. , 1985 .

[23]  Stefanie Shattuck-Hufnagel,et al.  The representation of phonological information during speech production planning:evidence from vowel errors in spontaneous speech , 1986, Phonology.

[24]  W. Levelt,et al.  Speaking: From Intention to Articulation , 1990 .

[25]  M. Garrett.  Levels of processing in sentence production , 1980 .

[26]  R. Johnston,et al.  The effects of overt and covert rehearsal on the emergence of the phonological similarity effect in 5‐year‐old children , 1990 .

[27]  Robert T. Wertz,et al.  Apraxia of speech in adults: The disorder and its management , 1984 .

[28]  S. Goldinger,et al.  Form-based priming in spoken word recognition: the roles of competition and bias. , 1992, Journal of Experimental Psychology. Learning, Memory and Cognition.

[29]  Stefanie Shattuck-Hufnagel,et al.  Sublexical Units and Suprasegmental Structure in Speech Production Planning , 1983 .

[30]  D. G. MacKay.  Spoonerisms: the structure of errors in the serial order of speech. , 1970, Neuropsychologia.

[31]  A D Baddeley,et al.  Short-term Memory for Word Sequences as a Function of Acoustic, Semantic and Formal Similarity , 1966, The Quarterly journal of experimental psychology.

[32]  A. Meyer.  Investigation of phonological encoding through speech error analyses: Achievements, limitations, and alternatives , 1992, Cognition.

[33]  A W Ellis,et al.  Phonological priming of lexical retrieval in speech production. , 1992, British journal of psychology.

[34]  G. Dell,et al.  The sequential cuing effect in speech production , 1994, Cognition.

[35]  Noam Chomsky,et al.  The Sound Pattern of English , 1968 .

[36]  M. Poirier,et al.  Immediate serial recall, word frequency, item identity and item position. , 1996, Canadian journal of experimental psychology = Revue canadienne de psychologie experimentale.

[37]  J. Folkins,et al.  Taxonomies in biology, phonetics, phonology, and speech motor control. , 1990, The Journal of speech and hearing disorders.