Language processing across the life span: new methodologies to study old questions.
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Aging↗
Biomedical subjects
Michael S Vitevitch
Publications and source records attributed to Michael S Vitevitch.
Sublexical and lexical representations in speech production: effects of phonotactic probability and onset density.
Phonotactic probability, neighborhood density, and onset density were manipulated in 4 picture-naming tasks. Experiment 1 showed that pictures of words with high phonotactic probability were named more quickly than pictures of words with low phonotactic probability. This effect was consistent over multiple presentations of the pictures (Experiment 2). Manipulations of phonotactic probability and neighborhood density showed only an influence of phonotactic probability (Experiment 3). In Experiment 4, pictures of words with sparse onsets were named more quickly than pictures of words with dense onsets. The results of these experiments provide additional constraints on the architecture and processes involved in models of speech production, as well as constraints on the connections between the recognition and production systems.
Attention↗
A web-based interface to calculate phonotactic probability for words and nonwords in English.
Phonotactic probability refers to the frequency with which phonological segments and sequences of phonological segments occur in words in a given language. We describe one method of estimating phonotactic probabilities based on words in American English. These estimates of phonotactic probability have been used in a number of previous studies and are now being made available to other researchers via a Web-based interface. Instructions for using the interface, as well as details regarding how the measures were derived, are provided in the present article. The Phonotactic Probability Calculator can be accessed at http://www.people.ku.edu/-mvitevit/PhonoProbHome.html.
Humans↗
Change deafness: the inability to detect changes between two voices.
A shadowing task was used to demonstrate an auditory analogue of change blindness (the failure to detect a change in a visual scene), namely change deafness. Participants repeated words varying in lexical difficulty. Halfway through the word list, either the same or a different talker presented the words to participants. At least 40% of the participants failed to detect the change in talker. More interesting is that differences in shadowing times were found as a function of change detection. Alternative possibilities to the change detection phenomenon were ruled out. The results of these experiments suggest that the allocation of attention may influence the detection of changes as well as the processing of spoken words in complex ways.
Adult↗
The influence of sublexical and lexical representations on the processing of spoken words in English.
Previous research suggests that sublexical and lexical representations are involved in spoken word recognition. The current experiment examined when sublexical and lexical representations are used in the processing of real words in English. The same set of words varying in phonotactic probability/neighbourhood density was presented in three different versions of a same-different matching task: (1) mostly real words as filler items, (2) an equal number of words and nonsense words as filler items and (3) mostly nonsense words as filler items. The results showed that lexical representations were used in version 1 of the same-different matching task to process the words, whereas sublexical representations were used in version 3 of the same-different matching task to process the words. Finally, in version 2 of the same-different matching task individual variation was observed in the form of distinct sublexical and lexical biases. Implications for the processing of spoken words are discussed.
Cognition↗
The facilitative influence of phonological similarity and neighborhood frequency in speech production in younger and older adults.
A tip-of-the-tongue (TOT) elicitation task and a picture-naming task were used to examine the role of neighborhood frequency as well as word frequency and neighborhood density in speech production. As predicted for the younger adults in Experiment 1, more TOT states were elicited for words with low word frequency and with sparse neighborhoods. Contrary to predictions, neighborhood frequency did not significantly influence retrieval of the target word. For the older adults in Experiment 2, however, more TOT states were elicited for words with low neighborhood frequency. Furthermore, in Experiment 3, pictures with high neighborhood frequency were named more quickly and accurately than pictures with low neighborhood frequency. These results show that the number of neighbors and the frequency of those neighbors influence lexical retrieval in speech production. The facilitative nature of these factors is more parsimoniously accounted for by an interactive model rather than by a strictly feedforward model of speech production.
Age Factors↗
Influence of onset density on spoken-word recognition.
Previous research has suggested that the initial portion of a word activates similar sounding words that compete for recognition. Other research has shown that the number of similar sounding words that are activated influences the speed and accuracy of recognition. Words with few neighbors are processed more quickly and accurately than words with many neighbors. The influences of the number of lexical competitors in the initial part of the word were examined in a shadowing and a lexical-decision task. Target words with few neighbors that share the initial phoneme were responded to more quickly than target words with many neighbors that share the initial phoneme. The implications of onset-density effects for models of spoken-word recognition are discussed.
Acoustic Stimulation↗
The influence of phonological similarity neighborhoods on speech production.
The influence of phonological similarity neighborhoods on the speed and accuracy of speech production was investigated with speech-error elicitation and picture-naming tasks. The results from 2 speech-error elicitation techniques-the spoonerisms of laboratory induced predisposition technique (B. J. Baars, 1992; B. J. Baars & M. T. Motley, 1974; M. T. Motley & B. J. Baars, 1976) and tongue twisters-showed that more errors were elicited for words with few similar sounding words (i.e., a sparse neighborhood) than for words with many similar sounding words (i.e., a dense neighborhood). The results from 3 picture-naming tasks showed that words with sparse neighborhoods were also named more slowly than words with dense neighborhoods. These findings demonstrate that multiple word forms are activated simultaneously and influence the speed and accuracy of speech production. The implications of these findings for current models of speech production are discussed.
Attention↗
Naturalistic and experimental analyses of word frequency and neighborhood density effects in slips of the ear.
A comparison of the lexical characteristics of 88 auditory misperceptions (i.e., slips of the ear) showed no difference in word-frequency, neighborhood density, and neighborhood frequency between the actual and the perceived utterances. Another comparison of slip of the ear tokens (i.e., actual and perceived utterances) and words in general (i.e., randomly selected from the lexicon) showed that slip of the ear tokens had denser neighborhoods and higher neighborhood frequency than words in general, as predicted from laboratory studies. Contrary to prediction, slip of the ear tokens were higher in frequency of occurrence than words in general. Additional laboratory-based investigations examined the possible source of the contradictory word frequency finding, highlighting the importance of using naturalistic and experimental data to develop models of spoken language processing.
Adult↗