Lexical Competition in the Recognition of Chinese Spoken Words

Abstract

Most contemporary models of spoken word recognition argue for the activation of a set of word candidates upon the input of word fragments and a subsequent process of lexical competition. The nature of such processes has been intensively studied in the western literature. However, there is a paucity of research on the issue with Chinese subjects. In this phonological-priming study, Chinese-speaking participants made lexical decision to disyllabic visual targets after hearing monosyllabic or disyllabic prime words. In Experiments 1A and 1B, lexical decision responses were faster when the monosyllabic primes corresponded to the first syllables of the disyllabic targets than when they did not. In Experiment 2, lexical decision responses were faster when the disyllabic primes were identical to the disyllabic targets than when the prime-target pairs shared nothing in common. However, lexical decision responses became slower when the prime-target pairs only shared the first syllable than when they shared nothing in common. The results are discussed with reference to the empirical findings of earlier research and the contemporary models of spoken word recognition.