Overlapping Phonological and Semantic Activation in Spoken Word Production.
Long Abstract
Schriefers et al. (1990) found that concurrent auditory
distractor words related either semantically or phonologically to
picture names affected picture naming latencies at different times.
Early, only semantic distractors affected naming, while later, only
phonological distractors had an effect. This supports a discrete
two-stage model where semantic processing is completed before
phonological processing.
A cascading model (e.g., Dell, 1986) predicts that strong
phonological relationships between distractors and targets might
better reveal overlapping phonological and semantic processing. We
tested this using pictures of homophones. Since the depicted
("sphere") and alternative ("formal dance") meanings of a homophone
("ball") are related only by sound, effects of a distractor
semantically related to the non-depicted homophone meaning ("dance")
would reveal overlapping semantic and phonological activation.
Three experiments used a picture-word interference task, where
speakers named pictures while ignoring auditory distractor words
presented 150 ms before picture onset.
In Experiments 1 and 2, homophone pictures (ball) were paired
with distractor words related either to the pictured meaning (game),
the alternative meaning (dance), or were unrelated (hammer).
Experiment 2 speakers studied picture names before testing; Experiment
1 speakers did not. Both experiments showed that relative to
unrelated distractors, homophone picture naming times were facilitated
by alternative-meaning distractors, while pictured-meaning distractors
caused slight interference. (Both experiments also included a
successful replication of the Schriefers et al. (1990) pattern of
results.) Experiment 3 showed that competitors ("frisbee" for "ball")
caused interference, whereas associates ("game") showed no consistent
effects, suggesting that the effects of pictured-meaning distractors
were reduced due to the preponderance of associates in those
conditions.
Since the only relationship between the alternative meanings
of a homophone is phonological, the facilitation observed with
alternative-meaning distractors and interference with pictured-meaning
distractors suggests that semantic and phonological processing
overlaps in time, supporting a cascading approach to language
production.
References
Dell, G. S. (1986). A spreading-activation theory of retrieval in
sentence production. Psychological Review, 93, 283-321.
Schriefers, H., Meyer, A. S., & Levelt, W. J. M. (1990). Exploring the
time course of lexical access in language production: Picture-word
interference studies. Journal of Memory and Language, 29, 86-102.
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