Malleable frequency effects in spoken word recognition

Abstract

Recent research has demonstrated that word frequency effects in spoken word recognition are primarily due to processes responsible for deciding among multiple lexical items activated in memory and not to differences in activation levels or thresholds of word units. The present study further supports this claim by demonstrating that frequency effects in the identification of spoken words are malleable and can be modified by varying the composition of the experimental stimuli. A set of high-frequeocy words was presented for identification mixed with either other high-frequency words or with low-frequency words. A set of low-frequency words was also presented with high- or low-frequency words. The results demonstrated that high-frequency words were identified more accurately when presented with other high-frequency words and that low-frequency words were identified more accurately when presented with other low-frequency words. The implications of these results for current models of spoken word recognition, in particular the neighborhood activation model, will be discussed. [Work supported by NIH Grant NS-12179 to Indiana University.]