Katherine K. White

Isolating phonological components that increase tip-of-the-tongue resolution

Three experiments investigated the role of specific phonological components in priming tip-of-thetongue (TOT) resolution. When in a TOT state, participants read a list of words that included phonological primes intermixed among unrelated words. The phonological primes contained either the same first letter as the target (Experiment 1), a single syllable (first, middle, or last) of the target (Experiment 2), or the first phoneme or first syllable of the target (Experiment 3). Reading first-letter primes in Experiment 1 did not help to resolve TOTs, whereas reading first-syllable primes significantly increased word retrieval in Experiment 2. Experiment 3 replicated the results of Experiments 1 and 2 using firstphoneme primes instead of first-letter primes and using two primes instead of three, although firstsyllable priming occurred only for primes read silently. The results of these experiments support a transmission deficit model, where TOTs are caused by weak connections among phonological representations and can be resolved through internal or overt production of specific phonology.

Free associations and dominance ratings of homophones for young and older adults

Homophones are words that share phonology but differ in meaning and spelling (e.g.,beach, beech). This article presents the results of normative surveys that asked young and older adults to free associate to and rate the dominance of 197 homophones. Although norms exist for young adults on word familiarity and frequency for homophones, these results supplement the literature by (1) reporting the four most frequent responses to visually presented homophones for both young and older adults, and (2) reporting young and older adults’ ratings of homophone dominance. Results indicated that young and older adults gave the same first response to 67% of the homophones and rated homophone dominance similarly on 60% of the homophone sets. These results identify a subset of homophones that are preferable for research with young and older adults because of age-related equivalence in free association and dominance ratings. These norms can be downloaded from the Psychonomic Society’s Web archive,www.psychonomic.org/archive/.

Phonologically mediated priming of preexisting and new associations in young and older adults.

In 2 experiments, the authors investigated phonologically mediated priming of preexisting and new associations in word retrieval. Young and older adults completed paired word stems with the first word that came to mind. Priming of preexisting associations occurred when word-stem pairs containing homophones (e.g., beech-s____) showed more completions with the target (e.g., sand) relative to unrelated pairs (e.g., batch-s____), with more priming for subordinate than for dominant homophones. Priming occurred for new associations independent of dominance such that word-stem pairs containing homophones (e.g., beech-l____ and beach-l____) were completed with the same word (e.g., laugh) more often than unrelated pairs (e.g., beech-l____ and batch-l____). No age differences in phonologically mediated priming were found for either type of association, suggesting age equivalence in the use of bottom-up phonological connections.

Why did I right that? Factors that influence the production of homophone substitution errors

Despite considerable research on language production errors involving speech, little research exists in the complementary domain of writing. Two experiments investigated the production of homophone substitution errors, which occur when a contextually appropriate word (e.g., beech) is replaced with its homophone (e.g., beach tree). Participants wrote down auditorily presented sentences containing dominant or subordinate homophones. Homophones were preceded by a lexical prime that overlapped in phonology and orthography (e.g., teacher) or only orthography (e.g., headmaster) with the target homophone. Results showed more substitution errors when the context elicited a subordinate homophone than when it elicited a dominant homophone. Furthermore, both types of primes equivalently increased production of homophone errors relative to control words (e.g., lawyer), suggesting that only orthographic overlap between the prime and target was necessary to influence errors. These results are explained within dual-route models of spelling, which postulate an interaction between lexical and sublexical routes when spelling.

Competing influences of emotion and phonology during picture-word interference

ABSTRACT Speaking is susceptible to distraction, illustrated by slowed picture naming in the presence of taboo distractor words. However, other distractors such as phonologically related words speed picture naming. Two experiments explored the simultaneous influences of these competing factors. Participants named target pictures superimposed with taboo, negative, positive, or neutral distractor words, and filler pictures were presented after every target to investigate emotional carryover effects. Distractors were phonologically related or unrelated to the target (Experiment 1) or filler (Experiment 2). Results showed that taboo, and to a lesser extent negative, distractors slowed picture naming relative to neutral and positive distractors, and slowing from taboo distractors persisted into the filler trial. In contrast, phonological overlap between targets and distractors sped target but not filler picture naming, especially when distractors were taboo. These findings suggest that strong emotional words engage attention to influence phonological encoding during speech production, and interfering effects from taboo words are particularly long lasting. Results are interpreted within existing language production theories, using mechanisms that are sensitive to words’ emotional properties and that regulate distractor interference during speech production.

Semantic category moderates phonological priming of proper name retrieval during tip-of-the-tongue states

Despite evidence that the majority of tip-of-the-tongue (TOT) states occur for proper names, little research has investigated factors that influence their resolution. Although phonological primes typically increase TOT resolution, the present experiment investigated whether priming effects are mitigated by semantic competition. Participants read questions whose answers were proper name targets (e.g., Helen Hunt, Elton John) from various semantic categories (e.g., actor, musician). Following a TOT, another question was presented that either included a prime name that varied in phonological overlap with the target (full first name or first syllable) and semantic category (same profession, different profession) or was phonologically and semantically unrelated to the target. After presenting the target question a second time, participants were more likely to resolve TOTs following first-name primes than unrelated names, independent of semantic category. In contrast, first-syllable primes marginally facilitated TOT resolution when the prime was in a different semantic category but not when the prime was in the same semantic category. These results demonstrate that semantic overlap increases competition from phonologically related names when there is incomplete phonological input, allowing an alternative name to prevent TOT resolution.

Syntactic Constraints in the Retrieval of Homophone Orthography.

In this experiment, syntactic constraints on the retrieval of orthography were investigated using homophones embedded in sentence contexts. Participants typed auditorily presented sentences that included a contextually appropriate homophone that either shared part of speech with its homophone competitor (i.e., was syntactically unambiguous) or had a different part of speech (was syntactically ambiguous). Each homophone was preceded by an unrelated word or a prime; primes were orthographically related to the competitor and shared or differed from the competitors part of speech. For syntactically unambiguous homophones, more errors occurred overall, and priming increased errors independent of the primes part of speech. For syntactically ambiguous homophones, priming occurred only following primes that shared part of speech with the competitor. These results demonstrate that written homophone errors can occur during lemma retrieval or during orthographic encoding, with the particular stage depending on the syntactic ambiguity of the homophone to be produced. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2009 APA, all rights reserved).

Age-related influences on lexical selection and orthographic encoding during homophone spelling.

Two experiments investigated age differences in how semantic, syntactic, and orthographic factors influence the production of homophone spelling errors in sentence contexts. Younger and older adults typed auditorily presented sentences containing homophone targets (e.g., blew) that were categorized as having a regular spelling (EW) or an irregular spelling (UE). In Experiment 1, homophones were preceded by an unrelated word, a semantic prime that was congruent with the targets meaning in the sentence (e.g., wind), or a semantic prime incongruent with the targets meaning (e.g., sky) and instead related to the competitor homophone. Experiment 2 manipulated the targets part of speech, where target and competitor homophones shared or differed in part of speech. For both age groups, significant semantic priming occurred, where homophone errors decreased following congruent semantic primes and increased following incongruent primes. However, priming only occurred when homophones shared part of speech. Further, both age groups made more errors on homophones with an irregular than a regular spelling, and this regularity effect was smaller for older adults when homophones shared part of speech. Contrary to many spoken production tasks, older adults made fewer errors overall than younger adults. These findings demonstrate age preservation in lexical selection but age differences in orthographic encoding, resulting in older adults producing fewer errors because of reduced activation to competitor homophones. These findings also illustrate that syntactic factors, such as part of speech, can influence the spellings of individual words.

Generation, intentionality of processing at encoding and retrieval, and age-related associative deficits

This research tested age-related differences in the retrieval of self-generated new associations under conditions that required intentional or incidental processing. Under intentional or incidental encoding conditions, young and older adults generated new associations by producing a response to a two-letter stem paired with a cue/prime word (e.g., throne–mo_____). Memory for these new associations was tested under intentional or incidental retrieval conditions by pairing the word stem with the previous cue/prime word, its homophone partner, or a prime/cue not previously presented. Results indicated equivalent priming and cueing effects for both age groups in all conditions. These results suggest that generation of new associations can eliminate age-related associative deficits, even under intentional encoding and retrieval conditions that typically disadvantage older adults.

Are precues effective in proactively controlling taboo interference during speech production

ABSTRACT This research investigated whether precues engage proactive control to reduce emotional interference during speech production. A picture-word interference task required participants to name target pictures accompanied by taboo, negative, or neutral distractors. Proactive control was manipulated by presenting precues that signalled the type of distractor that would appear on the next trial. Experiment 1 included one block of trials with precues and one without, whereas Experiment 2 mixed precued and uncued trials. Consistent with previous research, picture naming was slowed in both experiments when distractors were taboo or negative compared to neutral, with the greatest slowing effect when distractors were taboo. Evidence that precues engaged proactive control to reduce interference from taboo (but not negative) distractors was found in Experiment 1. In contrast, mixing precued trials in Experiment 2 resulted in no taboo cueing benefit. These results suggest that item-level proactive control can be engaged under certain conditions to reduce taboo interference during speech production, findings that help to refine a role for cognitive control of distraction during speech production.