Lexical Decision Experiments Research Articles

Priming effects of Tone 51 Sandhi in Taiwan Southern Min

Tone sandhi refers to the alternation between base and sandhi tones. In Taiwan Southern Min (TSM), a word generally changes from its base tone to the corresponding sandhi tone when it occurs in non-final positions of a syntactically determined constituent. Tone sandhi of the five unchecked tones in TSM realizes itself in a quasi-circular chain shift, the phonological opacity of which poses a theoretical challenge for both the rule-based generative framework and the output-based grammar like OT. To probe into the representation of such allotonic variation, sandhi T51 → T55 was used in an auditory-auditory priming lexical decision experiment to examine priming effects between monosyllabic real-morpheme primes and their corresponding disyllabic targets including I) T55TX, underlyingly T51TX, and II) T51e33 as adjectives, a special case where T51 remains its base tone. Each target was preceded by either a T55 prime (surface-tone match for type I target and allotone match for type II), a T51 prime (underlying-tone match for both types), or a TX unrelated control prime, where X is a tone other than 55 and 51. Results showed an overall stronger facilitation effect for T51 primes than for T55 primes, indicating the significance of underlying-tone match in auditory processing.

Distinguishing underlying and surface variation patterns in speech perception

ABSTRACTThis study examines the relationship between patterns of variation and speech perception using two English prefixes: “in-”/“im-” and “un-”. In natural speech, “in-” varies due to an underlying process of phonological assimilation, while “un-” shows a pattern of surface variation, assimilating before labial stems. In a go/no-go lexical decision experiment, subjects were presented a set of “mispronounced” stimuli in which the prefix nasal was altered (replacing [n] with [m], or vice versa), in addition to real words with unaltered prefixes. No significant differences between prefixes were found in responses to unaltered words. In mispronounced items, responses to “un-” forms were faster and more accurate than to “in-” forms, although a significant interaction mitigated this effect in labial contexts. These results suggest the regularity of variation patterns has consequences for the lexical specification of words, and argues against radical underspecification accounts which argue for a maximally sparse lexicon.

Paper-Based Assessment of the Effects of Aging on Response Time: A Diffusion Model Analysis.

The effects of aging on response time were examined in a paper-based lexical-decision experiment with younger (age 18–36) and older (age 64–75) adults, applying Ratcliff’s diffusion model. Using digital pens allowed the paper-based assessment of response times for single items. Age differences previously reported by Ratcliff and colleagues in computer-based experiments were partly replicated: older adults responded more conservatively than younger adults and showed a slowing of their nondecision components of RT by 53 ms. The rates of evidence accumulation (drift rate) showed no age-related differences. Participants with a higher score in a vocabulary test also had higher drift rates. The experiment demonstrates the possibility to use formal processing models with paper-based tests.

The influence of speech rate and accent on access and use of semantic information.

Circumstances in which the speech input is presented in sub-optimal conditions generally lead to processing costs affecting spoken word recognition. The current study indicates that some processing demands imposed by listening to difficult speech can be mitigated by feedback from semantic knowledge. A set of lexical decision experiments examined how foreign accented speech and word duration impact access to semantic knowledge in spoken word recognition. Results indicate that when listeners process accented speech, the reliance on semantic information increases. Speech rate was not observed to influence semantic access, except in the setting in which unusually slow accented speech was presented. These findings support interactive activation models of spoken word recognition in which attention is modulated based on speech demands.

Not all identification tasks are born equal: testing the involvement of production processes in perceptual identification and lexical decision.

The distinction between identification and production processes suggests that implicit memory should require more attention resources when there is a competition between alternative solutions during the test phase. The present two experiments assessed this hypothesis by examining the effects of divided attention (DA) at encoding on the high- and low-response-competition versions of perceptual identification (Experiment 1) and lexical decision (Experiment 2). In both experiments, words presented in the high-response-competition condition had many orthographic neighbours and at least one higher-frequency neighbour, whereas words presented in the low-response-competition condition had few orthographic neighbours and no higher-frequency neighbour. Consistent with the predictions of the identification/production distinction, Experiment 1 showed that DA reduced repetition priming in the high-, but not in the low-response-competition version of perceptual identification; in contrast, DA had comparable effects in the two versions of lexical decision (Experiments 2). These findings provide the first experimental evidence in support of the hypothesis that perceptual identification, a task nominally based on identification processes, might involve a substantive production component.

Dutch modality exclusivity norms: Simulating perceptual modality in space

Perceptual information is important for the meaning of nouns. We present modality exclusivity norms for 485 Dutch nouns rated on visual, auditory, haptic, gustatory, and olfactory associations. We found these nouns are highly multimodal. They were rated most dominant in vision, and least in olfaction. A factor analysis identified two main dimensions: one loaded strongly on olfaction and gustation (reflecting joint involvement in flavor), and a second loaded strongly on vision and touch (reflecting joint involvement in manipulable objects). In a second study, we validated the ratings with similarity judgments. As expected, words from the same dominant modality were rated more similar than words from different dominant modalities; but – more importantly – this effect was enhanced when word pairs had high modality strength ratings. We further demonstrated the utility of our ratings by investigating whether perceptual modalities are differentially experienced in space, in a third study. Nouns were categorized into their dominant modality and used in a lexical decision experiment where the spatial position of words was either in proximal or distal space. We found words dominant in olfaction were processed faster in proximal than distal space compared to the other modalities, suggesting olfactory information is mentally simulated as “close” to the body. Finally, we collected ratings of emotion (valence, dominance, and arousal) to assess its role in perceptual space simulation, but the valence did not explain the data. So, words are processed differently depending on their perceptual associations, and strength of association is captured by modality exclusivity ratings.

Aiming at the same target: A masked priming study directly comparing derivation and inflection in the second language

Aims and objectives/purpose/research questions: We compared the processing of morphologically complex derived vs. inflected forms in native speakers of German and highly proficient native Russian second language (L2) learners of German. Design/methodology/approach: We measured morphological priming effects for derived and inflected German words. To ensure that priming effects were genuinely morphological, the design also contained semantic and orthographic control conditions. Data and analysis: 40 native speakers of German and 36 native Russian learners of L2 German participated in a masked-priming lexical-decision experiment. For both participant groups, priming effects for derived vs. inflected words were compared using linear mixed effects models. Findings/conclusions: While first language (L1) speakers showed similar facilitation effects for both derived and inflected primes, L2 speakers showed a difference between the two prime types, with robust priming effects only for derived, but not for inflected forms. Originality: Unlike in previous studies investigating derivation and inflection in L2 processing, priming effects for derived and inflected prime–target pairs were determined on the basis of the same target word, allowing for a direct comparison between the two morphological phenomena. In this respect, this is the first study to directly compare the processing of derived vs. inflected forms in L2 speakers. Significance/implications: The results are inconsistent with accounts predicting general L1/L2 differences for all types of morphologically complex forms as well as accounts assuming that L1 and L2 processing are based on the same mechanisms. We discuss theoretical implications for L2 processing mechanisms, and propose an explanation which can account for the data pattern.

音韻的親近性が語彙判断を促進する――意味分類との相違――

Homophone effects, which refer to the phenomenon in which lexical decision times are longer for homophones than nonhomophones, have not been consistently observed for Japanese homophones with multiple mates. Mizuno and Matsui (2016) explored this inconsistency, finding that phonological familiarity of homophones—namely, the total frequencies of a homophone and all of its mates—can countervail homophone effects. However, it remains unclear why phonological familiarity has such a great influence on homophone processing by native Japanese readers, who rely very little on phonological information when processing words (Mizuno & Matsui, 2013). We hypothesized that high phonological familiarity influences lexical decision. Accordingly, we conducted lexical decision and semantic categorization experiments using Japanese homophones with high and low phonological familiarity. The results revealed that high phonological familiarity decreased lexical decision time, but not semantic categorization time, indicating that lexical decision tasks are sensitive to the phonological familiarity of stimulus words. Finally, we discuss the need to control the phonological familiarity of homophones in some way in the context of lexical decision tasks.

Perceptual Associations Between Words and Speaker Age

Recognition proficiency was measured in a lexical decision experiment using Korean words including ones that are stereotypically associated with younger or older people. Both accuracy rates and response times were significantly improved when a word was spoken in a voice whose age matched the age category of the word based on stereotype-based age rating. Accuracy rates were also significantly improved when a word was spoken in a voice whose age matched the frequency-based age category, although the effect on response times was marginal. The results are discussed in the context of an exemplar-based account incorporating social exemplar activation. First, the activation of social information is influenced by distributional properties of lexical use across social groups, indicating that social information of speakers is not only linked to sub-lexical representations as shown in previous studies, but also directly linked to lexical representations through social indices. Furthermore, the presence of an additional effect of stereotypes expands our understanding of the speech perception mechanism, suggesting that the social indices are enhanced by stereotypical associations between words and age categories. When listening to words with a wide spectrum of age-related variability, word-stereotypes activate social information, guiding to the lexical representations via social indices.

The concreteness effect on judgments of learning: Evaluating the contributions of fluency and beliefs.

Researchers have often determined how cues influence judgments of learning (JOLs; e.g., concrete words are assigned higher JOLs than are abstract words), and recently there has been an emphasis in understanding why cues influence JOLs (i.e., the mechanisms that underlie cue effects on JOLs). The analytic-processing (AP) theory posits that JOLs are constructed in accordance with participants' beliefs of how a cue will influence memory. Even so, some evidence suggests that fluency is also important to cue effects on JOLs. In the present experiments, we investigated the contributions of participants' beliefs and processing fluency to the concreteness effect on JOLs. To evaluate beliefs, participants estimated memory performance in a hypothetical experiment (Experiment 1), and studied concrete and abstract words and made a pre-study JOL for each (Experiments 2 and 3). Participants' predictions demonstrated the belief that concrete words are more likely to be remembered than are abstract words, consistent with the AP theory. To evaluate fluency, response latencies were measured during lexical decision (Experiment 4), self-paced study (Experiment 5), and mental imagery (Experiment 7). Number of trials to acquisition was also evaluated (Experiment 6). Fluency did not differ between concrete and abstract words in Experiments 5 and 6, and it did not mediate the concreteness effect on JOLs in Experiments 4 and 7. Taken together, these results demonstrate that beliefs are a primary mechanism driving the concreteness effect on JOLs.

Is nevtral NEUTRAL? Visual similarity effects in the early phases of written-word recognition.

For simplicity, contemporary models of written-word recognition and reading have unspecified feature/letter levels-they predict that the visually similar substituted-letter nonword PEQPLE is as effective at activating the word PEOPLE as the visually dissimilar substituted-letter nonword PEYPLE. Previous empirical evidence on the effects of visual similarly across letters during written-word recognition is scarce and nonconclusive. To examine whether visual similarity across letters plays a role early in word processing, we conducted two masked priming lexical decision experiments (stimulus-onset asynchrony = 50ms). The substituted-letter primes were visually very similar to the target letters (u/v in Experiment 1 and i/j in Experiment 2; e.g., nevtral-NEUTRAL). For comparison purposes, we included an identity prime condition (neutral-NEUTRAL) and a dissimilar-letter prime condition (neztral-NEUTRAL). Results showed that the similar-letter prime condition produced faster word identification times than the dissimilar-letter prime condition. We discuss how models of written-word recognition should be amended to capture visual similarity effects across letters.

An L2 Study on the Production and Perception of Stress Patterns in English: Second Language Acquisition of Compound Words

As compounding in English is a very productive process, a number of constructions emerged which can have multiple meanings. This paper aims to investigate the extent to which promiscuous compound nouns can be problematic for L2 English learners. The central questions which are addressed here are as follows: i What strategies do Polish speakers use to overcome the production and comprehension difficulties when processing English compounds? ii To what extent can Polish learners acquire the ability to produce and comprehend English compounds effectively? We compare the production and perception of stress patterns in various types of English compounds by L1 and L2 speakers of English on the basis of a reading protocol and a lexical decision experiment. One of the striking observations is that L1s are not always more accurate than L2s. This concerns stress-recognition in Adjective–Noun A–N phrases which are juxtaposed with A–N compounds. Elsewhere, natives lead in terms of stress-placement. On the other hand, the results obtained by L1s show no difference in stress-production and stress-recognition in Noun–Noun N–N attributive compounds, whereas L2s are more accurate in understanding than producing this type of compounds. A similar situation, in the case of L1s, concerns A–N opaque and N–N argument-head compounds but it is less prominent. As for L2s, A–N opaque compounds elicit relatively comparable results, but N–N argument-head compounds are responded to more accurately in the production experiment. A–N phrases, on the other hand, elicit a huge disproportion of accuracy between production and perception among L1s: although almost flawless in production, two-thirds of responses are inaccurate in perception. As for non-natives, they are more or less equally accurate in the case of A–N opaque compounds less than half correct renditions, but they adopt a strong tendency to produce and perceive fore-stress patterns across the board. Our experiments showed certain regularities in both accuracy and inaccuracy of stress placement by L2s. These regularities can be applied in methodology as to the order of teaching different types of compounds and phrases to Polish learners of English.

Inflectional complexity and experience affect plural processing in younger and older readers of Dutch and German

ABSTRACTAccording to dual-route models of morphological processing, regular inflections can be retrieved as whole-word forms or decomposed into morphemes. Baayen, Dijkstra, and Schreuder [(1997). Singulars and plurals in Dutch: Evidence for a parallel dual-route model. Journal of Memory and Language, 37, 94–117. doi:10.1006/jmla.1997.2509] proposed a dual-route model in which singular-dominant plurals (“brides”) are decomposed, while plural-dominant plurals (“peas”) are accessed as whole-word units. We report two lexical-decision experiments investigating how plural processing is influenced by participants’ age and morphological complexity of the language (German/Dutch). For all Dutch participants and older German participants, we replicated the interaction between number and dominance reported by Baayen and colleagues. Younger German participants showed a main effect of number, indicating decomposition of all plurals. Access to stored forms seems to depend on morphological richness and experience with word forms. The data pattern fits neither full-decomposition nor full-storage models, but is compatible with dual-route models.

Not Everybody Sees the Ness in the Darkness: Individual Differences in Masked Suffix Priming.

The present study explores the role of individual differences in polymorphemic word recognition. Participants completed a masked priming lexical decision experiment on suffixed words in which targets could be preceded by suffix-related words (words sharing the same suffix) or by affixed primes with a different suffix. Participants also completed a monomorphemic word lexical decision and were divided in two groups (fast and slow readers) according to their performance in this task. When the suffix priming data were analyzed taking into consideration participants' reading speed as a proxy for their greater reliance on orthography or on semantics, a significant interaction between reading speed and the magnitude of the masked suffix priming effects emerged. Only slow participants showed significant priming effects, whereas faster participants showed negligible masked suffix priming effects. These results demonstrate that different reading profiles modulate the access to morphological information in a qualitatively different manner and that individual differences in reading determine the manner in which polymorphemic words are processed.

The Chinese Lexicon Project: A megastudy of lexical decision performance for 25,000+ traditional Chinese two-character compound words.

Using a megastudy approach, we developed a database of lexical variables and lexical decision reaction times and accuracy rates for more than 25,000 traditional Chinese two-character compound words. Each word was responded to by about 33 native Cantonese speakers in Hong Kong. This resource provides a valuable adjunct to influential mega-databases, such as the Chinese single-character, English, French, and Dutch Lexicon Projects. Three analyses were conducted to illustrate the potential uses of the database. First, we compared the proportion of variance in lexical decision performance accounted for by six word frequency measures and established that the best predictor was Cai and Brysbaert's (PLoS One, 5, e10729, 2010) contextual diversity subtitle frequency. Second, we ran virtual replications of three previously published lexical decision experiments and found convergence between the original experiments and the present megastudy. Finally, we conducted item-level regression analyses to examine the effects of theoretically important lexical variables in our normative data. This is the first publicly available large-scale repository of behavioral responses pertaining to Chinese two-character compound word processing, which should be of substantial interest to psychologists, linguists, and other researchers.

Lexical processes in the recognition of Japanese horizontal and vertical compounds

This lexical decision eye-tracking study investigated whether horizontal and vertical readings elicit comparable behavioral patterns and whether reading directions modulate lexical processes. Response times and eye movements were recorded during a lexical decision task with Japanese bimorphemic compound words presented vertically. The data were then analyzed together with those obtained in a horizontal lexical decision experiment of Miwa, Libben, Dijkstra, and Baayen (2014). Linear mixed-effects analyses of response times and eye movements revealed that, although response times and first fixation durations were notably shorter in horizontal reading than vertical reading, the vertical reading elicited fewer fixations. Furthermore, while compounds were recognized largely in comparable ways regardless of reading direction, several lexical processes were found to be reading-direction-dependent. Particularly, processing of the first morpheme was modulated by reading direction in a late time frame, such that a horizontal reading advantage was observed for words with a high frequency first morpheme. All in all, the two reading directions do not only differ quantitatively in processing speed, but also qualitatively in terms of underlying processing mechanisms.

Perception of American English alveolar stops and flaps by Japanese learners of English: Does allophonic variation matter?

A lexical decision experiment was conducted with Japanese learners of English with relatively low English proficiency to investigate whether second-language (L2) learners utilize allophonic variation when recognizing words in L2. The stimuli consisted of 36 isolated bisyllabic words containing word-medial /t/, half of which were flap-favored words (e.g., better, city) and the other half were [t]-favored words (e.g., faster, custom). All stimuli were recorded with two surface forms: /t/ as a flap (e.g., better with a flap) or as [t] (e.g., better with [t]). The stimuli were counterbalanced in the lists using a Latin Square design, so that participants only heard one of the two surface forms. The accuracy data indicated that flap-favored words pronounced with a flap (e.g, city with a flap) were recognized significantly less accurately than [t]-favored words with a flap (e.g., faster with a flap) and [t]-favored words with [t] (e.g., faster with [t]). These results suggest that Japanese learners prefer canonical forms over allophonic variants, a result which is inconsistent with Pitt et al.’s (2011) study with native American English listeners. The results’ implications for the role of allophonic variation in L2 learning will be discussed. [Work supported by JSPS KAKENHI 26370508, 15K02492, and 16K02646.]

The nature of tone sandhi in Sixian Hakka

Sixian Hakka is a Hakka dialect spoken in Taiwan. The language has four contrastive tones on non-checked syllables: 24, 11, 31, and 55. But before 24 or 55, a tone sandhi pattern changes 24 to 11, neutralizing the tonal contrast to three. We report two experiments that tap into the nature of this tone sandhi pattern in this paper. The first is a nonce-probe test, in which participants produced novel words that met the sandhi environment (/24-24/, /24-55/), and the f0 of the first syllable was compared to the f0 produced in real words to test the productivity of the sandhi. The second is an auditory lexical decision experiment with auditory priming, which tested whether disyllabic tone sandhi words were primed by monosyllables that shared the base tone or sandhi tone of the first syllable. Both experiments were conduced in Miaoli, Taiwan. We will report data from 15 participants for the first experiment and 32 for the second experiments. Together with experimental studies on various types of tone sandhi patterns elsewhere (e.g., Mandarin, Taiwanese), the results here will shed further light on how speakers internalize complex tonal alternation. The study also provides experimental data on an understudied and disenfranchised language.

Non-cognate translation priming in masked priming lexical decision experiments: A meta-analysis

The masked translation priming paradigm has been widely used in the last 25 years to investigate word processing in bilinguals. Motivated by studies reporting mixed findings, in particular for second language (L2) to first language (L1) translation priming, we conducted, for the first time in the literature, a meta-analysis of 64 masked priming lexical decision experiments across 24 studies to assess the effect sizes of L1–L2 and L2–L1 non-cognate translation priming effects in bilinguals. Our meta-analysis also investigated the influence of potential moderators of translation priming effects. The results provided clear evidence of significant translation priming effects for both directions, with L1–L2 translation priming significantly larger than L2–L1 translation priming (i.e., effect size of 0.86 vs. 0.31). The analyses also revealed that L1–L2 translation effect sizes were moderated by the interval between prime and target (ISI), whereas L2–L1 translation effect sizes were modulated by the number of items per cell. Theoretical and methodological implications of this meta-analysis are discussed and recommendations for future studies are provided.

The processing of homographic morphemes in Chinese: an ERP study

ABSTRACTThe processing of homographic morphemes during Chinese word recognition was investigated by recording event-related potentials (ERPs) in a masked priming lexical decision experiment. There were four conditions. In the morpheme condition, the homographic morphemes in primes and targets had the same interpretations (e.g. “公園-public garden/park” and “公眾-public people/the public”). In the homograph condition, they had different interpretations (e.g. “公雞-male chicken/cock”). Semantic-sharing (e.g. “草地-lawn”) and unrelated (e.g. “嗅覺-olfaction”) conditions were also included. Compared to the unrelated condition, the morpheme and homograph primes produced a comparable P200. In contrast, N400 priming was identified only in the morpheme condition. Semantic sharing produced relatively weaker effects. These findings indicate that homographic morphemes are activated during word recognition even though in principle, whole-word processing is more efficient. The results are discussed with reference to morpho-orthographic and morpho-semantic processing.