Recognition of isolated words: The dynamics of cohort reduction

Abstract

In the experiment reported here, subjects heard the beginnings of spoken words, followed by increasingly larger segments of word-onset information until the words could be correctly identified. The likelihood of word identification at any given point was found to be an inverse power function of the number of words in a dictionary count that began with the same sounds as the stimulus. Subjects' prerecognition responses consisted of words drawn from a wide range of word frequencies. The variance in frequency decreased with increasing amounts of wordonset information. Results are discussed in terms of word-initial phonology as a trigger for response activation.Word finding -the process by which the phonological form of a desired word is brought above threshold for utterance -stands as a central topic for both normal and aphasic subjects. In a recent experiment we used a variant on the classic tip-of-the-tongue (TOT) experiment, in which we gave subjects spoken definitions of low-frequency (uncommon) words and asked for the correct words that fit those definitions. In most TOT studies, subjects unable to give a correct response are interrogated about whether they know the length, initial letters, or other features of the target word (cf. Brown & McNeill, 1966;Koriat & Lieblich, 1974;Rubin, 1975). In our case we attempted to infer subjects' knowledge of inaccessible target-word features by analyzing their spontaneously spoken interim response attempts (Kohn, Wingfield, Menn, Goodglass, Gleason, & Hyde, 1987).Our results showed that fragmentary responses that matched the first sounds of the target words were more likely to precede a correct response than to precede a failure. This, and related findings from that study, suggested that the amount of partial phonological knowledge with which the subject entered the search was a good predictor of likelihood of success.The importance of word-initial phonology to word retrieval can also be

Effort Not Speed Characterizes Comprehension of Spoken Sentences by Older Adults with Mild Hearing Impairment

“…This measure was taken from the midpoint of the KP word to take into account the finding that word recognition often occurs before the full duration of a word has been heard, especially when heard within a sentence context (Grosjean, 1980; Wayland et al, 1989; Lash et al, 2013). Data for incorrect initial target selections were excluded from the analyses ( M = 6.8% of trials for older adults; M = 4.8% of trials for younger adults).…”

A Bruner-Potter effect in audition? Spoken word recognition in adult aging.

“…For this purpose we employed the technique of word onset gating , in which participants hear increasing amounts of word onset information (the onset gate size) until a word can be correctly identified (Grosjean, 1980, 1996). Although hearing the initial sound of a word, such as the “ca” (/kæ/) in “camera” may activate all words known to the listener that share this initial sound (e.g., camel , cactus , castle ), this number progressively decreases as more of the word onset is heard, and the words that no longer share this onset become eliminated (Marslen-Wilson & Zwitserlood, 1989; Wayland, Wingfield & Goodglass, 1989). Because the number of possible word candidates that share the same initial sounds declines steeply as a word unfolds in time (Tyler, 1984; Wayland et al, 1989), correct word identification often occurs even before the full word duration of a stimulus word has been heard (Grosjean, 1980; Marslen-Wilson, 1984; Lindfield, Wingfield & Goodglass, 1999).…”

The gating paradigm: Effects of presentation format on spoken word recognition by children and adults

“…There is little empirical evidence to contradict these findings. Even so, some retain misgivings about the gating task, which center on the possibility that it is subject to the influence of postperceptual processes and thus inappropriate for studying core aspects of recognition (e.g., Wayland, Wingfield, & Goodglass, 1989;cf. Craig et aI., 1993).…”