Effects of dialect familiarity on lexical processing dynamics

Abstract

When listeners map acoustically ambiguous forms to abstract lexical representations such that there is a potential for greater lexical competition, there is observable variation in listeners' lexical processing dynamics. As compared to non-mobile listeners, geographically mobile listeners exhibit less inhibition given competing prime-target pairsas well as less facilitation from matching prime-target pairs. This difference is attributed to mobile listeners' exposure to cross-dialect ambiguities. The current study seeks to more closely examine the role of geographic mobility and dialect-specific familiarity, and further address lexical processing dynamics by manipulating inter-stimulus-intervals (ISI). A lexical decision task using cross-modal priming and cross-dialect phonological contrasts was used to assess effects of facilitation and inhibition. Analyses show an interaction between familiarity, vowel contrast, and ISI as predictors of response time. While facilitatory effects increase and inhibitory effects decrease when participants have higher familiarity with a contrast, high familiarity and longer ISI also increase the degree of individual variability. These results support predictions that processing differences are dependent upon familiarity with particular variants as opposed to a general strategic response, though it may be the case that a longer ISI allows for additional variability in processing and the adoption of general strategic responses to emerge.