Stress priming in picture naming: An SOA study

Abstract

This study investigates whether or not the representation of lexical stress information can be primed during speech production. In four experiments, we attempted to prime the stress position of bisyllabic target nouns (picture names) having initial and final stress with auditory prime words having either the same or different stress as the target (e.g., WORtel-MOtor vs. koSTUUM-MOtor; capital letters indicate stressed syllables in prime-target pairs). Furthermore, half of the prime words were semantically related, the other half unrelated. Overall, picture names were not produced faster when the prime word had the same stress as the target than when the prime had different stress, i.e., there was no stress-priming effect in any experiment. This result would not be expected if stress were stored in the lexicon. However, targets with initial stress were responded to faster than final-stress targets. The reason for this effect was neither the quality of the pictures nor frequency of occurrence or voice-key characteristics. We hypothesize here that this stress effect is a genuine encoding effect, i.e., words with stress on the second syllable take longer to be encoded because their stress pattern is irregular with respect to the lexical distribution of bisyllabic stress patterns, even though it can be regular with respect to metrical stress rules in Dutch. The results of the experiments are discussed in the framework of models of phonological encoding.

Monitoring metrical stress in polysyllabic words

“…Assuming that this patient had an impairment of lexical stress representations of irregular words, this result would support Levelt et al's theory (see also Laganaro, Vacheresse, & Frauenfelder, 2002;Miceli & Caramazza, 1993). However, Schiller, Fikkert, and Levelt (2004) did not obtain a metrical priming effect in Dutch, not even for irregular words, i.e., words that should be stored in the lexicon according to Levelt et al (1999).…”

“…Possibly, metrical stress is computed for the majority of the words as long as their stress pattern can be derived by some linguistic rule. This might also include words that are irregular according to psycholinguistic definitions, but regular in terms of certain linguistic theories (Trommelen & Zonneveld, 1989, 1990; see also Schiller et al, 2004). In this study, we will not be concerned with whether metrical stress is stored or computed.…”

Lexical stress encoding in single word production estimated by event-related brain potentials

“…The empirical evidence for whether or not metrical stress is stored in the lexicon is inconclusive at the moment (see overviews in Schiller et al, 2004Schiller et al, , 2006a. Possibly, metrical stress is computed for the majority of the words as long as their stress pattern can be derived by some linguistic rule including words that are irregular according to psycholinguistic definitions (see Fikkert et al, 2005 andSchiller et al, 2004).…”

“…Possibly, metrical stress is computed for the majority of the words as long as their stress pattern can be derived by some linguistic rule including words that are irregular according to psycholinguistic definitions (see Fikkert et al, 2005 andSchiller et al, 2004). Here, we will not be concerned with whether metrical stress is stored or computed.…”

Monitoring syllable boundaries during speech production

“…In Dutch, this would be non-initial stress. However, recent experiments (Schiller, Fikkert, & Levelt, 2004) showed that even exceptional stress patterns might not be stored in the lexicon as long as they can be derived by rule.…”