The importance of lexical status in word recognition of familiar words and novel items

Abstract

Talker variability and its effects on speech perception is an issue of central importance in word recognition research, and it is known that familiarity with a speaker’s voice improves recognition of novel words [Nygaard et al., Psych. Sci. 5, 42–46 (1994)]. In an investigation of how talker variability interacts with lexical status in the recognition of both familiar and unfamiliar words, listeners performed a closed-set identification task. A visual prime of four potential responses consisting of words and nonsense words that differed minimally phonologically was presented, followed by the audio target stimulus for identification using a response box. The experiment consisted of three 100-trial blocks. The trials were blocked according to talker variability (first block, single talker; second block, multiple talkers; and third block, single talker). Lexical status of the target stimulus varied within trials. Response times were also collected. Listeners performed better when the target item was a word in both the single and the multiple talker conditions. No significant interaction between talker variability and lexical status was found. The results suggest that for listeners lexical status is far more important than talker variability during word recognition.