Word‐frequency effects in modified rhyme test responses

Abstract

Four (of six) lists of a recorded six‐choice MRT made up of 10 numeral, 10 vowel (V), 15 initial consonant (IC), and 15 final consonant (FC) items were administered to 15 groups of 20 severely/profoundly deaf young adults. Analyses were made of the 960 non‐numeral‐item responses (4 lists × 6 foils × 40 items). The percentage of subjects choosing the correct response dropped from 47.98 for the Vs to 42.16 for ICs to 38.36 for FCs. Of the remaining 800 responses (errors), 89 were chosen by over 20% of the students. Confusions of voicing (V), manner (M), and particularly place (P) would be expected to explain the majority of the 70 greater‐than‐chance (GTC) errors among the 600 IC and FC responses. Place confusion did account for the majority of the 39 FC GTC errors. However for the 31 GTC IC errors, and the 19 GTC V errors, the relative word familiarity interacted with VMP explanations. Twenty‐eight of the 89 GTC errors could not be accounted for by either VMP confusions or word familiarity. Of these, six were confusions among /w,l, and r/.