Abstract
BackgroundFor word production, we may consciously pursue semantic or phonological search strategies, but it is uncertain whether we can retrieve the different aspects of lexical information independently from each other. We therefore studied the spread of semantic information into words produced under exclusively phonemic task demands.Methods42 subjects participated in a letter verbal fluency task, demanding the production of as many s-words as possible in two minutes. Based on curve fittings for the time courses of word production, output spurts (temporal clusters) considered to reflect rapid lexical retrieval based on automatic activation spread, were identified. Semantic and phonemic word relatedness within versus between these clusters was assessed by respective scores (0 meaning no relation, 4 maximum relation).ResultsSubjects produced 27.5 (±9.4) words belonging to 6.7 (±2.4) clusters. Both phonemically and semantically words were more related within clusters than between clusters (phon: 0.33±0.22 vs. 0.19±0.17, p<.01; sem: 0.65±0.29 vs. 0.37±0.29, p<.01). Whereas the extent of phonemic relatedness correlated with high task performance, the contrary was the case for the extent of semantic relatedness.ConclusionThe results indicate that semantic information spread occurs, even if the consciously pursued word search strategy is purely phonological. This, together with the negative correlation between semantic relatedness and verbal output suits the idea of a semantic default mode of lexical search, acting against rapid task performance in the given scenario of phonemic verbal fluency. The simultaneity of enhanced semantic and phonemic word relatedness within the same temporal cluster boundaries suggests an interaction between content and sound-related information whenever a new semantic field has been opened.
Highlights
Lexical search can imply different selection strategies
The results indicate that semantic information spread occurs, even if the consciously pursued word search strategy is purely phonological
Phonemic verbal fluency (VF) is assessed on condition of producing as many distinct words as possible beginning with a defined letter per time unit
Summary
Lexical search can imply different selection strategies. Certainly, we mostly choose words according to the content we aim to convey [1, 2], but other criteria may prevail under specific demands, for example, when testing ‘letter’ verbal fluency (VF). Phonemic VF is assessed on condition of producing as many distinct words as possible beginning with a defined letter per time unit In this context, it is an interesting question to which extent we can control the search mode, adapt it to the task-inherent demand, and scan the mental lexicon only under the premise of phonological word features, leaving semantic information aside. It is an interesting question to which extent we can control the search mode, adapt it to the task-inherent demand, and scan the mental lexicon only under the premise of phonological word features, leaving semantic information aside How this is answered depends on whether one conceives the processing of sound and content-related word features as necessarily interwoven or potentially separate, and which automaticity one attributes to the respective operations. The simultaneity of enhanced semantic and phonemic word relatedness within the same temporal
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