Naming in Noise: The Contribution of Orthographic Knowledge to Speech Repetition

While the influence of orthographic knowledge on lexical and postlexical speech processing tasks has been consistently observed, it is not the case in tasks that can be performed at the prelexical level. The present study re-examined the orthographic consistency effect in such a task, namely in shadowing. Comparing the situation where the acoustic signal was clearly presented to the situation where it was embedded in noise, we observed that the orthographic effect was restricted to the latter situation and only to high-frequency words. This finding supports the lexical account of the orthographic effects in speech recognition tasks and illustrates the ability of the cognitive system to adjust itself as a function of task difficulty by resorting to the appropriate processing mechanism and information in order to maintain a good level of performance

Literacy Affects Spoken Language in a Non-Linguistic Task: An ERP Study

It is now commonly accepted that orthographic information influences spoken word recognition in a variety of laboratory tasks (lexical decision, semantic categorization, gender decision). However, it remains a hotly debated issue whether or not orthography would influence normal word perception in passive listening. That is, the argument has been made that orthography might only be activated in laboratory tasks that require lexical or semantic access in some form or another. It is possible that these rather “unnatural” tasks invite participants to use orthographic information in a strategic way to improve task performance. To put the strategy account to rest, we conducted an event-related brain potential (ERP) study, in which participants were asked to detect a 500-ms-long noise burst that appeared on 25% of the trials (Go trials). In the NoGo trials, we presented spoken words that were orthographically consistent or inconsistent. Thus, lexical and/or semantic processing was not required in this task and there was no strategic benefit in computing orthography to perform this task. Nevertheless, despite the non-linguistic nature of the task, we replicated the consistency effect that has been previously reported in lexical decision and semantic tasks (i.e., inconsistent words produce more negative ERPs than consistent words as early as 300 ms after the onset of the spoken word). These results clearly suggest that orthography automatically influences word perception in normal listening even if there is no strategic benefit to do so. The results are explained in terms of orthographic restructuring of phonological representations

Examining the Role of Talker-Specific Details in the Perception of Words Spoken by Famous Talkers

Previous work demonstrates that talker-specific details tend to affect language perception relatively late in processing. One possible explanation for this time-course effect may be that the listeners in the previous study were presented with unfamiliar talkers. Under conditions where one has been repeatedly exposed to a talker, as is typically the case with famous people, talker-specific details may affect perceptual processing relatively early. The present research sought to explore the potential for relatively early talker effects in the perception of words spoken by famous talkers in a speeded-shadowing task. Words were presented using a long-term repetition priming paradigm where half of the words were spoken by Barack Obama and half were spoken by Hillary Clinton during both the prime and target blocks. During the speeded-shadowing task in the present study reaction times in the target block were longer when the same word was spoken by a different talker in the prime block relative to when the same word was spoken by the same talker in both the prime and target blocks. The results obtained in the present study demonstrate that talker-specific details can affect the perception of spoken words relatively early during processin

Examining the Role of Talker-Specific Details in the Perception of Words Spoken by Famous Talkers

Previous work demonstrates that talker-specific details tend to affect language perception relatively late in processing. One possible explanation for this time-course effect may be that the listeners in the previous study were presented with unfamiliar talkers. Under conditions where one has been repeatedly exposed to a talker, as is typically the case with famous people, talker-specific details may affect perceptual processing relatively early. The present research sought to explore the potential for relatively early talker effects in the perception of words spoken by famous talkers in a speeded-shadowing task. Words were presented using a long-term repetition priming paradigm where half of the words were spoken by Barack Obama and half were spoken by Hillary Clinton during both the prime and target blocks. During the speeded-shadowing task in the present study reaction times in the target block were longer when the same word was spoken by a different talker in the prime block relative to when the same word was spoken by the same talker in both the prime and target blocks. The results obtained in the present study demonstrate that talker-specific details can affect the perception of spoken words relatively early during processin

Orthographic Consistency and Word-Frequency Effects in Auditory Word Recognition: New Evidence from Lexical Decision and Rime Detection

Many studies have repeatedly shown an orthographic consistency effect in the auditory lexical decision task. Words with phonological rimes that could be spelled in multiple ways (i.e., inconsistent words) typically produce longer auditory lexical decision latencies and more errors than do words with rimes that could be spelled in only one way (i.e., consistent words). These results have been extended to different languages and tasks, suggesting that the effect is quite general and robust. Despite this growing body of evidence, some psycholinguists believe that orthographic effects on spoken language are exclusively strategic, post-lexical, or restricted to peculiar (low-frequency) words. In the present study, we manipulated consistency and word-frequency orthogonally in order to explore whether the orthographic consistency effect extends to high-frequency words. Two different tasks were used: lexical decision and rime detection. Both tasks produced reliable consistency effects for both low- and high-frequency words. Furthermore, in Experiment 1 (lexical decision), an interaction revealed a stronger consistency effect for low-frequency words than for high-frequency words, as initially predicted by Ziegler and Ferrand (1998), whereas no interaction was found in Experiment 2 (rime detection). Our results extend previous findings by showing that the orthographic consistency effect is obtained not only for low-frequency words but also for high-frequency words. Furthermore, these effects were also obtained in a rime detection task, which does not require the explicit processing of orthographic structure. Globally, our results suggest that literacy changes the way people process spoken words, even for frequent words

Competition Effects in Phonological Priming: The Role of Mismatch Position between Primes and Targets

In three experiments, we examined lexical competition effects using the phonological priming paradigm in a shadowing task. Experiments 1A and 1B showed that an inhibitory priming effect occurred when the primes mismatched the targets on the last phoneme (/bagar/-/bagaj/). In contrast, a facilitatory priming effect was observed when the primes mismatched the targets on the medial phoneme (/viraj/-/vilaj/). Experiment 2 replicated these findings with primes presented visually rather than auditorily. The data thus indicate that the position of the mismatching phoneme is a critical factor in determining the competition effect between prime and target word

Speaking while listening: Language processing in speech shadowing and translation

Contains fulltext : 233349.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Open Access)Radboud University, 25 mei 2021Promotores : Meyer, A.S., Roelofs, A.P.A.199 p

The right visual field advantage and the optimal viewing position effect: On the relation between foveal and parafoveal word recognition

Recent developments on the optimal viewing position (OVP) effect suggest that it may be caused by the same factors that underlie the right visual field advantage in word recognition. This raises the question of the relationship between foveal and parafoveal word recognition. Three experiments are reported in which participants identified tachistoscopically presented words that were presented randomly in foveal and parafoveal vision. The results show that both the OVP effect and the right visual field advantage for word recognition are part of a larger extended OVP curve that has the shape of a Gaussian distribution with the mode shifted to the left of the center of the stimulus word. The shift of the distribution is a function of word length, but not of presentation duration; it is also slightly moderated by the information value of word beginning and word end