Louisa M. Slowiaczek

Phonological priming reflects lexical competition

A phonological relationship between a prime and a target produces facilitation when one or two initial phonemes are shared (low-similarity facilitation) but produces interference when more phonemes are shared (high-similarity interference; Slowiaczek & Hamburger, 1992). Although low-similarity facilitation appears to be a strategic effect (Goldinger, Luce, Pisoni, & Marcario, 1992), this result cannot generalize to high-similarity interference because the two effects are dissociated (Slowiaczek & Hamburger, 1992). In the present study, strategic processing in high-similarity interference was investigated. The phonological relatedness proportion (PRP) and the prime-target interstimulus interval (ISI) were varied in a shadowing experiment. Low-similarity facilitation was found only with a high PRP and long ISI, but high-similarity interference was found regardless of PRP and ISI. These results suggest that strategies influence low-similarity facilitation, but high-similarity interference reflects automatic processing.

Effects of Lexical Stress in Auditory Word Recognition

Although research examining the use of prosodic information in the processing of spoken words has increased in recent years, results from these studies have been inconclusive. The present series of experiments systematically examines the importance of one prosodic variable (lexical stress) in the recognition of isolated spoken words. Data collected in an identification task suggest that segmental information may be more heavily relied upon when appropriate lexical stress information is not available. Results of subsequent reaction time experiments support the hypothesis that lexical stress influences the processing of auditorily presented words. in three shadowing experiments, correctly stressed items were produced faster than incorrectly stressed items, and in a lexical decision experiment, correctly stressed words were classified faster than incorrectly stressed words. Thus, this work provides evidence across several experimental tasks for the use of lexical stress information in the processing of spoken words. Moreover, the data suggest that lexical stress should be an important aspect of the representation of words in an interactive model of auditory word recognition.

An Investigation of Phonology and Orthography in Spoken-Word Recognition:

The possible influence of initial phonological and/or orthographic information on spoken-word processing was examined in six experiments modelled after and extending the work Jakimik, Cole, and Rudnicky (1985). Following Jakimik et al., Experiment 1 used polysyllabic primes with monosyllabic targets (e.g., BUCKLE—BUCK / b ^ k @ l /—/ b ^ k /; MYSTERY—MISS, / m I s t 2 r i /—/ m I s /). Experiments 2, 3, and 4 used polysyllabic primes and polysyllabic targets whose initial syllables shared phonological information (e.g., NUISANCE—NOODLE, / n u s I n s /—/ n u d @ l /), orthographic information (e.g., RATIO—RATIFY, /r e Si o /—/ r æ t I f a I /), both (e.g., FUNNEL—FUNNY, / f ^ n @ l /—/ f ^ n i /), or were unrelated (e.g., SERMON—NOODLE, / s Å m @ n /—/ n u d @ l /). Participants engaged in a lexical decision (Experiments 1, 3, and 4) or a shadowing (Experiment 2) task with a single-trial (Experiments 2 and 3) or subsequent-trial (Experiments 1 and 4) priming procedure. Experiment 5 tested primes and targets that varied in the number of shared graphemes while holding shared phonemes constant at one. Experiment 6 used the procedures of Experiment 2 but a low proportion of related trials. Results revealed that response times were facilitated for prime—target pairs that shared initial phonological and orthographic information. These results were confirmed under conditions when strategic processing was greatly reduced suggesting that phonological and orthographic information is automatically activated during spoken-word processing.

Information selection and use in hypothesis testing: what is a good question, and what is a good answer?

The process of hypothesis testing entails both information selection (asking questions) and information use (drawing inferences from the answers to those questions). We demonstrate that although subjects may be sensitive to diagnosticity in choosing which questions to ask, they are insufficiently sensitive to the fact that different answers to the- same question can have very different diagnosticities. This can lead subjects to overestimate or underestimate the information in the answers they receive. This phenomenon is demonstrated in two experiments using different kinds of inferences (category membership of individuals and composition of sampled populations). In combination with certain information-gathering tendencies, demonstrated in a third experiment, insensitivity to answer diagnosticity can contribute to a tendency toward preservation of the initial hypothesis. Results such as these illustrate the importance of viewing hypothesistesting behavior as an interactive, multistage process that includes selecting questions, interpreting data, and drawing inferences.

Semantic Priming in a Single-Word Shadowing Task

In recent work using a single-word shadowing task, Slowiaczek and Hamburger (1992) reported facilitation in response times for auditory targets preceded by auditory but not visual primes that shared one initial phoneme, and interference for targets preceded by auditory or visual primes that shared three initial phonemes. Because interference occurred with word primes but not with nonword primes, it was interpreted as resulting from competition among phonologically similar lexical representations. In the present investigation, whether the single-word shadowing task does indeed involve accessing lexical representations was examined in two semantic priming experiments. Subjects repeated aloud auditorily presented target words that were preceded by unrelated, semantically related, or identical primes

On the role of bias in dissociated phonological priming effects: A reply to Goldinger (1999)

Phonological priming studies have revealed two dissociated effects: low-similarity facilitation and highsimilarity interference (Hamburger & Slowiaczek, 1996; Slowiaczek & Hamburger, 1992). Because these two effects are influenced by different variables, they most likely reflect different processes that occur during auditory word recognition. Goldinger (1999) suggests that one bias is responsible for all phonological priming effects. In this reply, we argue against such a position. Although low similarity facilitation is likely the product of this bias, the data on phonological priming indicate that the dissociated highsimilarity interference cannot be produced by the same mechanism. Instead, the data indicate that high-similarity interference may reflect lexical processes.

The where and when of linguistic word-level prosody.

Despite its presence in all natural languages prosodic processing remains under-researched in cognitive science. Hemispheric specialisation for linguistic word-level prosody, specifically, sensitivity to stress typicality was examined using dichotic listening. In Experiment 1, participants named targets and in Experiment 2 participants classified targets as nouns or verbs. In both studies stress typicality effects emerged in the left hemisphere only. These results suggest that: (1) the left hemisphere may be responsible for conveying accurate stress patterns prior to lexical access, (2) supra-segmental information reduces the set of potential candidates during lexical access, and (3) prosody and grammatical category interact in the language processing system.

Stress and Context in Auditory Word Recognition

Recent work in psycholinguistics has revealed that the role of lexical stress in auditory word recognition may be a complex one involving other potential sources of information. In the present investigation, the nature of lexical stress effects on auditory word recognition in context is examined. The ability of subjects to identify words based on the prosodic pattern of the word is examined for the words in isolation and in a sentence context. The results revealed a small influence of stress on the identification of the stimulus waveforms relative to a large effect of context. The data indicate that lexical stress is used in the identification of the words; however, its role is minor compared to the importance of contextual information.

Repetition priming and experimental context effects.

The repetition priming effect has been taken as evidence that lexical entries are automatically activated in memory. However, contextual cues in an experiment may influence repetition priming, suggesting that this priming may not be the result of automatic processes. Five experiments used a primed shadowing task to explore the role of phonological context on repetition priming. In the first four experiments, high- and low-expectancy conditions were tested. Between experiments, the degree of phonological relatedness (high or low phonological similarity), percentage of related trials that were repetition trials (ID ratio), and modality of stimulus presentation (auditory or visual) were manipulated. Results indicate that repetition priming in auditory word recognition is eliminated by a low ID ratio. The fact that an external variable such as the ID ratio influences repetition priming suggests that repetition priming may be the product of processes extraneous to the automatic activation of lexical entries.

Repetition priming in auditory word recognition

Repetition priming, faster response times to a word when it is preceded by an identical rather than an unrelated prime, has been repeatedly obtained using diverse methodologies and stimuli. However Slowiaczek and Hamburger [J. Exp. Psychol. Learn. Mem. Cognit. 18, 1239–1250 (1992)] failed to find repetition priming for auditorily primed, monosyllabic, auditory words. They suggested that strategic processing caused by list context effects was responsible. Repetition priming, however, was not obtained when strategic processing was reduced [M. B. Hamburger and L. M. Slowiaczek, J. Exp. Psychol. Learn. Mem. Cognit. (under review)]. The current experiments further investigate repetition priming in auditory word recognition. Subjects shadowed auditorily presented targets preceded by unrelated, phonologically similar, or identical auditory primes. Phonological similarity [whether prime‐target pairs shared one phoneme (low similarity) or three phonemes (high similarity)] and likelihood of strategic processing wer...