Abstract
Previous research has demonstrated that the number and frequency of lexical neighbors affects the perception of individual sounds within a nonword in a phoneme identification task. In the present research, the issue of what items should be considered part of a word’s neighborhood was explored. These experiments, in which both lexical decision and phoneme identification tasks were used, demonstrate that lexical neighborhood effects are not limited to words that match the target item syllable initially (the cohort). Words that differ from a target only in their first phoneme influence the process of lexical access. This argues against the notion that word onsets serve a unique or special purpose in word recognition.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
Allopenna, P. D., Magnuson, J. S., &Tanenhaus, M. K. (1998). Tracking the time course of spoken word recognition using eye movements: Evidence for continuous mapping models.Journal of Memory & Language,38, 419–439.
Cluff, M. S., &Luce, P. A. (1990). Similarity neighborhoods of spoken two-syllable words: Retroactive effects on multiple activation.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance,16, 551–563.
Cohen, J. (1988).Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences (2nd ed.). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Cole, R. A., Jakimik, J., &Cooper, W. E. (1978). Perceptibility of phonetic features in fluent speech.Journal of the Acoustical Society of America,64, 44–56.
Cole, R. A., &Perfetti, L. A. (1980). Listening for mispronunciations in a children’s story: The use of context by children and adults. Journal of Verbal Learning & Verbal Behavior,19, 297–315.
Connine, C. M., Blasko, D. G., &Titone, D. (1993). Do the beginnings of spoken words have a special status in auditory word recognition?Journal of Memory & Language,32, 193–210.
Engen, T. (1971). Psychophysics I: Discrimination and detection. In J.W. Kling & L. A. Riggs (Eds.),Woodworth and Schlosberg’s experimental psychology (pp. 11–46). New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.
Fox, R. A. (1984). Effect of lexical status on phonetic categorization.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance,10, 526–540.
Ganong, W. F. (1980). Phonetic categorization in auditory word perception.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance,6, 110–125.
Goldinger, S. D., Luce, P. A., &Pisoni, D. B. (1989). Priming lexical neighbors of spoken words: Effects of competition and inhibition.Journal of Memory & Language,28, 501–518.
Kučera, H., &Francis, W. N. (1967).A computational analysis of present-day American English. Providence, RI: Brown University Press.
Luce, P. A. (1987). Neighborhoods of words in the mental lexicon.Dissertation Abstracts International,47(12-B, Pt. 1), 5078.
Luce, P. A., &Pisoni, D. B. (1998). Recognizing spoken words: The neighborhood activation model.Ear & Hearing,19, 1–36.
Luce, P. A., Pisoni, D. B., &Goldinger, S. D. (1990). Similarity neighborhoods of spoken words. In G. T. M. Altmann (Ed.),Cognitive models of speech processing: Psycholinguistic and computational perspectives (pp. 122–147). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Marr, D. (1982). Vision. San Francisco: Freeman.
Marslen-Wilson, W. D. (1987). Functional parallelism in spokenword recognition.Cognition,25, 71–102.
Marslen-Wilson, W. D. (1990). Activation, competition and frequency in lexical access. In G. T. M. Altmann (Ed.),Cognitive models of speech processing: Psycholinguistic and computational perspectives (pp. 148–172). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Marslen-Wilson, W. D., Moss, H. E., &van Halen, S. (1996). Perceptual distance and competition in lexical access.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance,22, 1376–1392.
Marslen-Wilson, W. D., &Welsh, A. (1978). Processing interactions and lexical access during word recognition in continuous speech.Cognitive Psychology,10, 29–63.
Marslen-Wilson, W. D., &Zwitserlood, P. (1989). Accessing spoken words: The importance of word onsets.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance,15, 576–585.
McQueen, J. M. (1991). The influence of the lexicon on phonetic categorization: Stimulus quality in word-final ambiguity.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance,17, 433–443.
Miller, J. L., &Dexter, E. R. (1988). Effects of speaking rate and lexical status on phonetic perception.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance,14, 369–378.
Newman, R. S., Sawusch, J. R., &Luce, P. A. (1997). Lexical neighborhood effects in phonetic processing.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance,23, 873–889.
Newman, R. S., Sawusch, J. R., Luce, P. A., &Aubin, A. (2000). The relative time course of neighborhood and lexical effects [Abstract].Journal of the Acoustical Society of America,107, 2857.
Nooteboom, S. G., &van der Vlugt, M. J. (1988). A search for a word-beginning superiority effect.Journal of the Acoustical Society of America,84, 2018–2032.
Norris, D., McQueen, J. M., &Cutter, A. (2000). Merging information in speech recognition: Feedback is never necessary.Behavioral & Brain Sciences,23, 299–370.
Nusbaum, H. C., Pisoni, D. B., &Davis, C. K. (1984).Sizing up the Hoosier Mental Lexicon: Measuring the familiarity of 20,000 words (Research on Speech Perception Progress, Rep. 10). Bloomington: Indiana University.
Pitt, M. A., &Samuel, A. G. (1993). An empirical and meta-analytic evaluation of the phoneme identification task.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance,19, 699–725.
Raaijmakers, J. G. W. (2003). A further look at the “language-asfixed-effect Fallacy”.Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology,57, 141–151.
Raaijmakers, J. G. W., Schrijnemakers, J. M. C., &Gremmen, F. (1999). How to deal with “the language-as-fixed-effect fallacy”: Common misconceptions and alternative solutions.Journal of Memory & Language,41, 416–426.
Samuel, A. (1986). Red herring detectors and speech perception: In defense of selective adaptation.Cognitive Psychology,18, 452–499.
van Donselaar, W. (1996). Mispronunciation detection.Language & Cognitive Processes,11, 621–628.
Vitevitch, M. S. (2002). Influence of onset density on spoken-word recognition.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance,28, 270–278.
Vitevitch, M. S., &Luce, P. A. (1999). Probabilistic phonotactics and neighborhood activation in spoken word recognition.Journal of Memory & Language,40, 374–408.
Walley, A. C. (1987). Young children’s detections of word-initial and-final mispronunciations in constrained and unconstrained contexts.Cognitive Development,2, 145–167.
Westbury, C., Buchanan, L., &Brown, N. R. (2002). Sounds of the neighborhood: False memories and the structure of the phonological lexicon.Journal of Memory & Language,46, 622–651.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
This research was supported in part by National Institutes of Health Grants DC00219 and DC00879 to the University at Buffalo.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Newman, R.S., Sawusch, J.R. & Luce, P.A. Do postonset segments define a lexical neighborhood?. Memory & Cognition 33, 941–960 (2005). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03193204
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03193204