The onset effect in word naming

Cognition, 2008

Reading aloud is faster when targets (e.g., PAIR) are preceded by visually masked primes sharing just the onset (e.g., pole) compared to all different primes (e.g., take). This effect is known as the masked onset priming effect (MOPE). One crucial feature of this effect is its presumed non-lexical basis. This aspect of the MOPE is tested in the current study. Dutch participants named pictures having bisyllabic names, which were preceded by visually masked primes. Picture naming was facilitated by first-segment but not last-segment primes, and by first-syllable as well as last-syllable primes. Whole-word primes with first or last segment overlap slowed down picture naming latencies significantly. The first-segment priming effect (i.e., MOPE) cannot be accounted for by non-lexical response competition since pictures cannot be named via the non-lexical route. Instead, the effects obtained in this study can be accommodated by a speech-planning account of the MOPE.

The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 2010

Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language Paseo Mikeletegi 69 20009-Donostia (Spain) phone: +34 639926454 email: [email protected] 2 Abstract The present study investigates the origins of the masked onset priming effect (MOPE). There are two alternative interpretations that account for most of the evidence reported on the MOPE, so far. The Speech Planning account (SP) identifies the locus of the MOPE in the preparation of the speech response. In contrast, the dual-route theory proposes that the effect arises as a result of the processing of the prime by the nonlexical route. In a series of masked onset priming word naming experiments we test the validity of these accounts by manipulating the primes' frequency, their lexical status and pronounceability. We found consistent MOPEs of similar magnitude with high and low frequency prime words as well as with pronounceable nonwords. Contrarily, when primes consisted of unpronounceable consonantal strings the effect disappeared, suggesting that pronounceability of the prime is a prerequisite for the emergence of the MOPE. These results are in accordance with the predictions of the SP account. The pattern of effects obtained in the present study further defines the origins of the MOPE. 3 Acknowledgments This research has been partially supported by Grants SEJ2006-09238/PSIC and CONSOLIDER-INGENIO 2010 (CSD2008-00048) from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation. The authors are grateful to Mark Seidenberg for providing information regarding his ongoing work. Thanks are also due to Johannes Ziegler and Conrad Perry for valuable comments on the operation of the CDP+ model. This manuscript wouldn't have been possible without the helpful comments by Sachiko Kinoshita, Betty Mousikou and an anonymous reviewer on earlier drafts. 4

Brain and language, 2004

Form-priming effects from sublexical (syllabic or segmental) primes in masked priming can be accounted for in two ways. One is the sublexical pre-activation view according to which segments are pre-activated by the prime, and at the time the form-related target is to be produced, retrieval/assembly of those pre-activated segments is faster compared to an unrelated situation. However, it has also been argued that form-priming effects from sublexical primes might be due to lexical pre-activation. When the sublexical prime is presented, it activates all form-related words (i.e., cohorts) in the lexicon, necessarily including the form-related target, which-as a consequence-is produced faster than in the unrelated case. Note, however, that this lexical pre-activation account makes previous pre-lexical activation of segments necessary. This study reports a nonword naming experiment to investigate whether or not sublexical pre-activation is involved in masked form priming with sublexical primes. The results demonstrated a priming effect suggesting a nonlexical effect. However, this does not exclude an additional lexical component in form priming.

Journal of Memory and Language, 2004

This study investigates the so-called onset effect in the naming task. Forster and found that form priming effects in word naming using masked priming are reducible to an onset effect, i.e. a shared initial segment. Furthermore, they established that the onset effect is nonlexical in nature and it occurs only for target words whose pronunciation relies strongly on the non-lexical route. confirmed this effect and found that phonologically and orthographically similar words yielded the same priming effect as segmentally dissimilar words as long as they share the onset. Here, we show that form-priming effects can be obtained even when prime and target have a different onset. This priming effect seems to be phonological in nature since it also occurs in picture naming. However, there is an asymmetry between begin and end-related priming conditions, even in nonword naming. An account of these effects is offered in terms of the WEAVER model of speech production.

2007

We report two experiments investigating the masked onset priming effect (MOPE) in reading aloud. More specifically, we tried to provide an answer to the question of whether or not mismatching segments in the prime have an inhibitory effect on the MOPE. Dutch native speakers saw four-letter target words preceded by visually masked primes that either consisted of whole words or letters, and either matched or did not match the onset segment of the target. Prime exposure duration was varied between 33 ms and 66 ms to investigate the time course of the obtained effects. Whole-word primes behaved the same as letter primes at the short (33 ms) prime exposure duration, whereas at longer prime exposure (66 ms) effects of mismatching segments present in the whole-word but not in the letter primes led to slower overall naming latencies, suggesting that inhibition from segments beyond the onset needs time to build up.

Memory & Cognition, 2002

Recent research on visual word recognition has highlighted the issue of whether phonology is computed from orthography in parallel or sequentially. Many current computationally implemented models of reading aloud, such as Plaut and colleagues' parallel distributed processing (PDP) model or Zorzi and colleagues' connectionist dual-route model, assume that phonology is derived from orthography in parallel across the letter string. In contrast, Coltheart and colleagues have pointed out that their dual-route cascaded (DRC) model is the only model that incorporates a serial assumption. Because this is one of the major features that distinguishes the DRC model from other computational models of reading aloud, it is important to establish the empirical basis of this claim.

Journal of Memory and Language, 1996

A series of word, nonword, and picture naming experiments is reported using the masked priming paradigm with very brief prime exposures. In Experiment 1 naming latencies for both bi-and trisyllabic words were faster when preceded by primes that corresponded to the first syllable than when preceded by primes that contained one letter more or less than the first syllable. Experiment 2 showed syllable priming effects with bisyllabic nonword targets in the naming task. Experiment 3 failed to observe such syllable priming effects with word and nonword targets in the lexical decision task. Finally, Experiment 4 replicated the syllabic priming effects using pictures as targets. These results suggest that the syllable represents a functional unit of output phonology in French. ᭧

Journal of Memory and Language, 1998

To investigate the role of the syllable in Dutch speech production, five experiments were carried out to examine the effect of visually masked syllable primes on the naming latencies for written words and pictures. Targets had clear syllable boundaries and began with a CV syllable (e.g., ka.no) or a CVC syllable (e.g., kak.tus), or had ambiguous syllable boundaries and began with a CV[C] syllable (e.g., ka[pp]er). In the syllable match condition, bisyllabic Dutch nouns or verbs were preceded by primes that were identical to the target's first syllable. In the syllable mismatch condition, the prime was either shorter or longer than the target's first syllable. A neutral condition was also included. None of the experiments showed a syllable priming effect. Instead, all related primes facilitated the naming of the targets. It is concluded that the syllable does not play a role in the process of phonological encoding in Dutch. Because the amount of facilitation increased with increasing overlap between prime and target, the priming effect is accounted for by a segmental overlap hypothesis.

Memory & Cognition, 1994

Journal of Memory and Language, 1996

The effects of briefly presented, masked, and orthographically and/or phonologically related nonword primes on the recognition of subsequently presented target words were investigated in different experimental tasks. Robust effects of orthographic and phonological priming were observed in both the lexical decision and the perceptual identification tasks, with no such effects appearing in the word naming task, except for orthographic priming effects at the shortest prime exposures. Further investigation of this marked dissociation across experimental tasks showed that word naming is particularly sensitive to shared onsets in the masked priming paradigm and that robust rhyme priming does occur when primes and targets have different onsets. The lexical decision task, on the other hand, showed priming effects independently of whether prime and targets shared onsets. These results are discussed within the framework of a bimodal interactive activation model of visual word recognition and naming. ᭧