Language and Memory

Six lexical decision experiments were conducted to examine the influence of complex structure on the processing speed of English compounds. All experiments revealed that semantically transparent compounds (eg, rosebud) were processed more quickly than matched monomorphemic words (eg, giraffe). Opaque compounds (eg, hogwash) were also processed more quickly than monomorphemic words. However, when the experimental materials and/or procedure encouraged decomposition/integration, this advantage ...

The influence of memory on the subjective experience of later problem solving was investigated in two experiments. Study of the solution words to anagrams in the first phase of the experiments lead to faster solution of those anagrams in a second phase. Participants interpreted their easy solution of old anagrams as due to characteristics of the anagrams and judged them as easier for others to solve, relative to new anagrams. When participants were deprived of the subjective experience of solving the anagrams by presenting the solution with the anagram, they switched to an alternative basis for judgment such as a theory or rules, which lead to a different ordering of items according to judged difficulty (Experiment 1). Requiring participants to recognize whether solution words had been presented in the first phase did not eliminate the effect of prior presentation on judged difficulty, but requiring recognition judgments and warning participants of the nature of the effect did eliminate it (Experiment 2). We discuss the usefulness of the distinction between judgments based on subjective experience versus theory, introduce ways to diagnose when different bases for judgments are used, and discuss how memory spoils subjective experience as a basis for judgment. ᭧

The robust effects of knowledge on memory for domain-relevant information reported in previous research have largely been attributed to improved organizational processing. The present research proposes the distinctiveness theory of skilled memory, which states that knowledge improves memory not only through improved organizational processing but also through more effective processing of differences between items in the context of the similarity defined by organization. Individuals with either high or low knowledge about NFL football were presented with lists containing items from the target domain (NFL football) or a control domain (cooking). Individuals either performed a category sorting task, a pleasantness rating task, or both. Results on a surprise free recall test later showed knowledge effects on memory (high knowledge individuals had greater recall than low knowledge individuals for football items but not for cooking items). Secondary measures established that the knowledge effect on memory was due not only to better organizational processing but also to more effective item-specific processing.

In three structural priming experiments, we investigated temporarily ambiguous se ntences such as While the man was visiting the children who were surprisingly pleasant and funny played outside. Participants produced more transitive sentences following such temporarily ambiguous sentences than following unambiguous sentences that were disambiguated by the use of a comma, indicating that the initial transitive analysis remained activated even though it was inconsistent with the disambiguation. We argue that this provides evidence against full deactivation of the inappropriate analysis. Our results support models that claim that the initial, inappropriate analysis remains activated, either because it leaves a memory trace This construction needs learned. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 133, 450-467] or because readers do not fully reanalyze the sentence when they encounter the disambiguation

Linear mixed-effects models have increasingly replaced mixed-model analyses of variance for statistical inference in factorial psycholinguistic experiments. Although LMMs have many advantages over ANOVA, like ANOVAs, setting them up for data analysis also requires some care. One simple option, when numerically possible, is to fit the full variance-covariance structure of random effects (the maximal model; Barr, Levy, Scheepers & Tily, 2013), presumably to keep Type I error down to the nominal α in the presence of random effects. Although it is true that fitting a model with only random intercepts may lead to higher Type I error, fitting a maximal model also has a cost: it can lead to a significant loss of power. We demonstrate this with simulations and suggest that for typical psychological and psycholinguistic data, higher power is achieved without inflating Type I error rate if a model selection criterion is used to select a random effect structure that is supported by the data.

This study addresses the question of whether word translation is based on word-word associations at a lexical level or is achieved on the basis of a common representation in an amodal conceptual system. Recently, Kroll and Stewart (1994) proposed an asymmetry model in which it is assumed that forward translation (from the first language to the second language) is mainly conceptually mediated, whereas backward translation (from the second language to the first language) is mainly based on intralexical word-word associations. This model predicts that nonverbal semantic context effects (a) will be larger in forward translation than in word reading and (b) will be larger in forward translation than in backward translation. The results of four Stroop-like experiments in which a to-be-translated word was accompanied by a color or a picture did not support the second prediction. If anything, semantic context had a larger effect on backward translation than on forward translation. We conclude that our findings, and a large number of findings reported earlier in the literature, can be explained by a model of word translation in which (a) both forward and backward translations are largely conceptually mediated and (b) concept activation is easier for first-language words than for second-language words.

Previous research suggests that English-speaking children comprehend agent-patient verb passives earlier than experiencer-theme verb passives . We report three experiments examining whether such effects reflect delayed acquisition of the passive syntax or instead are an artifact of the experimental task, relating to children's poor picture recognition for such verbs. In two syntactic priming experiments, 3-and 4-year-olds produced more agent-patient passives after hearing passive primes involving agent-patient and theme-experiencer verbs (Experiment 1), and theme-experiencer and experiencer-theme verbs (Experiment 2), than after corresponding active primes; moreover, the magnitude of priming was unaffected by verb type. However, a picture-sentence matching task (Experiment 3) replicated previous findings: Children performed more poorly on experiencer-theme sentences than agent-patient sentences. Our results suggest that children's acquisition of passive syntax is not delayed, and that semantic effects found in previous studies may instead be task-related.

Immediate serial recall is better for sentences than word lists presumably because of the additional support that meaningful material receives from long-term memory. This may occur automatically, without the involvement of attention, or may require additional attentionally demanding processing. For example, the episodic buffer model proposes that the executive component of working memory plays a crucial role in the formation of links between different representational formats and previously unrelated concepts. This controlled integrative encoding may be more important in sentence than word recall. Three experiments examined the effect of an attention-demanding concurrent visual choice reaction time task on the recall of auditorily presented stories, sentences, and lists of unrelated words, in order to investigate the relative importance of automatic and controlled processing for these materials. The concurrent task was found to disrupt the recall of strings of unrelated sentences more than random word lists, suggesting that controlled processing played a greater role in the sentence recall task. On subsequent learning trials, however, recall of the unrelated words was also disrupted by the concurrent task, possibly due to the development of chunking. The large dual task decrement for unrelated sentences did not generalise to the recall of more naturalistic prose, suggesting that the requirement to integrate phonological with long-term linguistic information is not attentionally demanding per se; instead, the integration of unrelated concepts is effortful once recall extends beyond the capacity of the phonological loop. Our results suggest that sentence recall reflects contributions from both automatic linguistic processes and attentionally limited working memory.

This paper reports two experiments designed to investigate whether lexical bias in phonological speech errors is caused by immediate feedback of activation, by self-monitoring of inner speech, or by both. The experiments test a number of predictions derived from a model of self-monitoring of inner speech. This model assumes that, after an error in inner speech, (1) an early interruption of speech may be made when speech was initiated too hastily, (2) the error may be covertly repaired, leading to the correct target, (3) the error may be covertly replaced by another speech error, or (4) an error may go undetected, leading to a completed spoonerism. This model of self-monitoring was supported by the speech errors observed in two SLIP experiments. The pattern of results supports the idea that lexical bias has two sources, immediate feedback of activation and self-monitoring of inner speech.

Temporal distinctiveness models of memory retrieval claim that memories are organised partly in terms of their positions along a temporal dimension, and suggest that memory retrieval involves temporal discrimination. According to such models the retrievability of memories should be related to the discriminability of their temporal distances at the time of retrieval. This prediction is tested directly in three pairs of experiments that examine (a) memory retrieval and (b) identification of temporal durations that correspond to the temporal distances of the memories. Qualitative similarities between memory retrieval and temporal discrimination are found in probed serial recall (Experiments 1 and 2), immediate and delayed free recall (Experiments 3 and 4) and probed serial recall of grouped lists (Experiments 5 and 6). The results are interpreted as consistent with the suggestion that memory retrieval is indeed akin to temporal discrimination.

This study examines how the cross-linguistic similarity of translation equivalents affects bilingual word recognition. Performing one of three tasks, Dutch-English bilinguals processed cognates with varying degrees of form overlap between their English and Dutch counterparts (e.g., lamp-lamp vs. flood-vloed vs. song-lied). In lexical decision, reaction times decreased going from translation equivalents without any cross-linguistic orthographic overlap to very similar but non-identical cognates. Identical cognates showed a large discontinuous processing advantage and were subject to facilitation from phonological similarity. In language decision, the effect of orthographic similarity reversed: A cognate inhibition effect arose, the size of which increased with orthographic similarity. Here identical cognates were markedly slower than other cognates. In progressive demasking, no orthographic similarity effect was found for non-identical cognates, but a semantic similarity effect arose. In addition, there was a facilitation effect for identical cognates of low English frequency. The task-dependent result patterns are interpreted in terms of four accounts of cognate representation and provide evidence in favor of a localist connectionist account.

This study explores the hypothesis that the short-term phonological storage component of working memory may play a role in the acquisition of vocabulary by young children. In a longitudinal design, the vocabulary skills of 104 children entering school between the ages of 4 and 5 were tested and retested 1 year later. On both occasions, phonological memory was investigated by requiring a child to repeat back nonwords varying in length and complexity, while nonverbal intelligence and reading were assessed using standard tests. The phonological memory score was highly correlated with vocabulary at both age 4 (r = 525) and age 5 (r = .572), in both cases accounting for a substantial and significant proportion of the variance when all other predictors are removed by stepwise regression. Phonological memory at age 4 also accounted for a significant amount of variance in vocabulary score at age 5, over and above that accounted for by the vocabulary score the previous year. Although these relationships are necessarily correlational in nature, the data are certainly consistent with the view that phonological memory is involved in the acquisition of new vocabulary in children. Possible mechanisms accounting for this relationship are discussed.

Recently, theorists have suggested a close relation between the codes activated during language processing and those involved in STM. In order to further investigate this relationship, we examined the performance of an anomic patient, MS, to determine whether he would exhibit the same impairment in retrieving phonology from semantics in short-term memory that he shows in picture naming. The results indicated a similar pattern of performance in naming and in STM tasks requiring retention of output phonological codes (those involved in production). However, MS performed at a high level on STM tasks requiring the retention of input phonological codes (those involved in perception). The findings support the following conclusions: semantic information contributes to STM, input and output phonological codes are separable and maintained in separate buffers, and the same pathway that underlies retrieval of phonology from semantics in naming underlies feedback from semantics in list recall.

Similarity between component speech sounds influences language processing in numerous ways. Explanation and detailed prediction of linguistic performance consequently requires an understanding of these basic similarities. The research reported in this paper contrasts two broad classes of approach to the issue of phoneme similarity-theoretically driven measures based on phonological features, and empirically derived measures based on confusability. Two experiments are used to test a variety of measures from both classes for their ability to predict judgments of similarity between English consonants. The simplest featural measure is the best on these tests. This recommends it as the basis for further explorations, and improvements to the basic feature model are identified. The paper concludes by examining the extent to which confusability depends on phoneme similarity.

The primary functional role of conversational hand gestures in narrative discourse is disputed. A novel experimental technique investigated whether gestures function primarily to aid speech production by the speaker, or communication to the listener. The experiment involved repeated narration of a cartoon story or stories to a single or multiple listeners. The pattern of results matched that predicted by the communication hypothesis. In a second experiment, the effects of attention in the listener were investigated. Significant differences were found in gesture production when narrating to attentive versus inattentive listeners. These results support the theory that during a narrative task gestures are produced primarily for the benefit of the listener. Our technique can readily be generalized to other tasks and contexts.

Speakers employ acoustic cues (pitch accents) to indicate that a word is important, but may also use visual cues (beat gestures, head nods, eyebrow movements) for this purpose. Even though these acoustic and visual cues are related, the exact nature of this relationship is far from well understood. We investigate whether producing a visual beat leads to changes in how acoustic prominence is realized in speech, and whether it leads to changes in how prominence is perceived by observers. For Experiment I (''making beats'') we use an original experimental paradigm in which speakers are instructed to realize a target sentence with different distributions of acoustic and visual cues for prominence. Acoustic analyses reveal that the production of a visual beat indeed has an effect on the acoustic realization of the co-occurring speech, in particular on duration and the higher formants (F 2 and F 3 ), independent of the kind of visual beat and of the presence and position of pitch accents. In Experiment II (''hearing beats''), it is found that visual beats have a significant effect on the perceived prominence of the target words. When a speaker produces a beat gesture, an eyebrow movement or a head nod, the accompanying word is produced with relatively more spoken emphasis. In Experiment III (''seeing beats''), finally, it is found that when participants see a speaker realize a visual beat on a word, they perceive it as more prominent than when they do not see the beat gesture.

The representation of word-initial consonant clusters is explored by examining speech errors that involve a cluster made up of two consonants, such as iprl of pray. Spontaneous speech errors and four studies of experimentally induced speech errors yielded similar results. The first member of a cluster is less likely to be lost, added, or mispronounced than the second member of the cluster. In addition, the first member of the cluster is more similar to a singleton consonant than the second member. Simple activation-based explanations cannot account for this data. We argue that clusters must contain two distinct types of syllable positions: a Cl position (also found with singleton consonants) and a C2 position (found only in chrsters).

Behavioral and event-related potential (ERP) measures are reported for a study in which relatively proficient Chinese-English bilinguals named identical pictures in each of their two languages. Production occurred only in Chinese (the first language, L1) or only in English (the second language, L2) in a given block with the order counterbalanced across participants. The repetition of pictures across blocks was expected to produce facilitation in the form of faster responses and more positive ERPs. However, we hypothesized that if both languages are activated when naming one language alone, there might be evidence of inhibition of the stronger L1 to enable naming in the weaker L2. Behavioral data revealed the dominance of Chinese relative to English, with overall faster and more accurate naming performance in L1 than L2. However, reaction times for naming in L1 after naming in L2 showed no repetition advantage and the ERP data showed greater negativity when pictures were named in L1 following L2. This greater negativity for repeated items suggests the presence of inhibition rather than facilitation alone. Critically, the asymmetric negativity associated with the L1 when it followed the L2 endured beyond the immediate switch of language, implying long-lasting inhibition of the L1. In contrast, when L2 naming followed L1, both behavioral and ERP evidence produced a facilitatory pattern, consistent with repetition priming. Taken together, the results support a model of bilingual lexical production in which candidates in both languages compete for selection, with inhibition of the more dominant L1 when planning speech in the less dominant L2. We discuss the implications for modeling the scope and time course of inhibitory processes.

Subjects listened to sentences with early closure (e.g., When Roger leaves the house is dark) or late closure syntax (e.g., When Roger leaves the house it's dark) and one of three prosodies: cooperating (coinciding prosodic and syntactic boundary), baseline (phonetically neutralized prosodic boundary), and conflicting (prosodic boundary at a misleading syntactic location). Prosodic manipulations were verified by phonetic measurements and listener judgments. Four experiments demonstrated facilitation in speeded phonosyntactic grammaticality judgment, end-of-sentence comprehension, and crossmodal naming tasks: Sentences with cooperating prosody were processed more quickly than those with baseline prosody. Three experiments showed interference: Sentences with conflicting prosody were processed more slowly than those with baseline prosody. All experiments demonstrated a processing advantage for late closure structures in the conflicting and baseline conditions, but no differences between syntactic types in the cooperating condition. Cross-modal naming results showed early syntactic effects due to both high-level and intermediate-level prosodic boundaries. We argue that the initial syntactic structure assigned to an utterance can be determined by its prosodic phonological representation.

The present study investigated the cognitive nature of second language (L2) lexical processing in sentence context. We examined bilinguals' L2 word recognition performance for language-ambiguous words [cognates (e.g., piano) and homographs (e.g., pan)] in two sentence context experiments with highly proficient Spanish-English bilinguals living in a bilingual community (Experiment 1) and with intermediate proficiency Spanish-English bilinguals living in a monolingual community (Experiment 2). To determine the influence of sentence constraint on cross-language activation, the critical words and their matched controls were inserted in low-and high-constraint sentences. In low-constraint sentences significant cognate facilitation was observed, suggesting that both languages were active and influencing processing. In high-constraint sentences, the effects of cognate facilitation were eliminated. This interaction between cognate status and sentence constraint demonstrates that sentence context can restrict non-selectivity when there is sufficient semantic information to suppress the non-target language. The fact that this interaction was observed for both bilingual groups suggests that even less proficient bilinguals, who do not communicate daily in the L2, can use context to constrain crosslanguage lexical competition. Implications for current models of bilingual lexical access are discussed.

Autobiographical memories retrieved by bicultural Russian-English bilinguals were compared across languages. Results suggest that bilinguals' languages may influence cognitive styles, so that when speaking a language associated with a more individualistic culture, bilinguals produce more individualistic narratives, whereas when speaking a language associated with a more collectivist culture, bilinguals produce more collectivist narratives, regardless of language of encoding, or main agent in the narrative. Moreover, bilinguals expressed more intense affect when speaking the same language at the time of retrieval that they spoke at the time when the event took place. The positive/negative emotional valence of autobiographical narratives was influenced by language and age at the time of the event and by the main agent in the narrative. It is proposed that memories and self-narratives in bilinguals are mediated by the language spoken at any given time and that language functions as a vehicle for culture, with cultural differences seeping into language and influencing cognitive styles and the self.

This paper begins by considering problems that have plagued investigations of automatic or unconscious influences of perception and memory. A process dissociation procedure that provides an escape from those problems is introduced. The process dissociation procedure separates the contributions of different types of processes to performance of a task, rather than equating processes with tasks. Using that procedure, I provide new evidence in favor of a two-factor theory of recognition memory; one factor relies on automatic processes and the other relies on intentional processes. Recollection (an intentional use of memory) is hampered when attention is divided, rather than full, at the time of test. In contrast, the use of familiarity as a basis for recognition memory judgments (an automatic use of memory) is shown to be invariant across full versus divided attention, manipulated at test. Process dissociation procedures provide a general framework for separating automatic from intentional forms of processing in a variety of domains; including perception, memory, and thought.

The presence of concreteness effects on recall of prose paragraphs was shown to depend on the language experience of the subjects, the nature of the task, and whether subjects were given both concrete and abstract passages. In Experiment 1, monolingual and bilingual subjects recalled both abstract and concrete English paragraphs following comprehension instructions. Although no overall difference in recall was found, monolinguals showed a large concreteness effect but bilinguals showed only a marginal one. In Experiment 2, the concreteness effect for monolinguals was eliminated by presenting only abstract or concrete paragraphs to a given subject. In Experiment 3, after rating the imageabiity of individual sentences within abstract and concrete paragraphs, both language groups showed a large concreteness effect in recall. Concreteness effects can thus be obtained in recall of prose, tied not to differences in how abstract and concrete words are represented, but to how the prose is both encoded and retrieved. It is suggested that for bilinguals, the language of prose can act as a context specifier. 0 1989 Admix FIXSS, 1~.

Emotionality is a key component of subjective experience that influences memory. We tested how the emotionality of words affects memory monitoring, specifically, judgments of learning, in both cued recall and free recall paradigms. In both tasks, people predicted that positive and negative emotional words would be recalled better than neutral words. That prediction was valid for free recall of positive, negative, and neutral words, but invalid for cued recall of negative word pairs compared to neutral and positive pairs; only positive emotional pairs showed enhanced recall relative to neutral pairs. Consequently, people exhibited extreme overconfidence for cued recall of negative word pairs on the first study-test trial. We demonstrate that emotionality does not globally enhance memory, but rather has specific effects depending on the valence and task. Results are discussed in terms of this complex relationship between emotionality and memory performance and the subsequent variations in diagnosticity of emotionality as a cue for memory monitoring.

Thinking about the meaning of studied words (deep processing) enhances memory on typical recognition tests, relative to focusing on perceptual features (shallow processing). One explanation for this levels-of-processing effect is that deep processing leads to the encoding of more distinctive representations (i.e., more unique semantic or conceptual features that can be recollected to differentiate the words). This recollective distinctiveness hypothesis predicts that deep processing should reduce false recognition errors, because expecting more distinctive recollections can facilitate retrieval monitoring accuracy (i.e., a distinctiveness heuristic). We report several experiments confirming this prediction, while ruling out explanations based on familiarity or overall memory strength. Additional support for the distinctiveness hypothesis was that a manipulation designed to selectively enhance the distinctiveness of words in the shallow condition eliminated the levels-of-processing effect on false recognition. These findings suggest that conceptual processing can elicit the distinctiveness heuristic, and that recollective distinctiveness drives levels-of-processing effects.

Misperception of nonwords created by adjacent letter transpositions (TL anagrams) indicates that word recognition is based on an orthographic matching process that is tolerant of minor positional errors in the letter sequence. We report five experiments that investigate the extent to which the misperception of TL anagrams is influenced by orthographic and phonological properties of the letter string. The first two experiments demonstrate that in a lexical decision task with masked target displays, false positive responses are more likely for unpronounceable than for pronounceable TL items. In Experiment 3 this effect was observed in an identification task as a trade-off between lexical responses and correct identification. A fourth experiment provided additional evidence that these effects are mediated by phonological rather than orthographic processing. This interpretation was strengthened by a final experiment showing that dyslexic participants did not show the pronounceability effect in lexical decision. These results are interpreted in terms of inhibition of lexical responses to TL anagrams by incompatible phonological representations of the letter string.

The results of two experiments indicate that individual differences in syntactic processing are governed in part by the amount of working memory capacity available for language comprehension processes. Reading the verbs of an object relative sentence, such as The reporter that the senator attacked admitted the error, takes more time for readers with less working memory capacity for language, and their resulting comprehension is less accurate. Experiment 1 investigated the effects of a concurrent working memory load and found that with no load or a small memory load many Low Span readers comprehended object relative sentences very poorly although their reading times in the critical area of these sentences were greater than those of High Span subjects. Experiment 2 replicated the reading time effects of Experiment 1 for object relative sentences and showed that pragmatic information improved the comprehension of the lower capacity readers, although their use of this information was limited to the clause in which it was presented. o IW Academic press, IIIC.

We first show that in a word-translation task, context words induce semantic interference whereas context pictures induce semantic facilitation. Experiments 2 and 3 show that this finding is not due to differences between context words and context pictures in terms of (a) relative speed of lexical activation or (b) the category level of the activated concepts. To account for our findings, we propose that conceptually-driven lexical access is confined to the selected target concept (or ''preverbal message''). A version of Starreveld and La HeijÕs (1996) connectionist model in which this proposal was implemented successfully simulated the polarity and the time course of the semantic context effects observed. In Experiment 4 the prediction that context pictures do not induce lexical context effects was tested and confirmed.

Two eye-tracking experiments investigated processing of VP-NP attachment ambiguities. Experiment 1 tested sentences in which there was an initial bias toward VP attachment. Readers experienced more difficulty when semantic information disambiguated the sentences to NP attachment than when it disambiguated them to VP attachment or when it was consistent with either analysis. Experiment 2 tested sentences in which there was no initial bias toward either VP or NP attachment. Readers experienced more difficulty when semantic information disambiguated the sentences to NP attachment or VP attachment than when it was consistent with either analysis. We argue that these results challenge theories that assume a competition mechanism, such as constraint-based lexicalist accounts (e.g.

This paper begins by considering problems that have plagued investigations of automatic or unconscious influences of perception and memory. A process dissociation procedure that provides an escape from those problems is introduced. The process dissociation procedure separates the contributions of different types of processes to performance of a task, rather than equating processes with tasks. Using that procedure, I provide new evidence in favor of a two-factor theory of recognition memory; one factor relies on automatic processes and the other relies on intentional processes. Recollection (an intentional use of memory) is hampered when attention is divided, rather than full, at the time of test. In contrast, the use of familiarity as a basis for recognition memory judgments (an automatic use of memory) is shown to be invariant across full versus divided attention, manipulated at test. Process dissociation procedures provide a general framework for separating automatic from intentional forms of processing in a variety of domains; including perception, memory, and thought.

A well-known asymmetry exists in the bilingual masked priming literature in which lexical decision is used: namely, masked primes in the dominant language (L1) facilitate decision times on targets in the less dominant language (L2), but not vice versa. In semantic categorization, on the other hand, priming is symmetrical. In Experiments 1-3 we confirm this task difference, finding robust masked L2-L1 translation priming in semantic categorization but not lexical decision. In formulating an account for these findings, we begin with the assumption of a representational asymmetry between L1 and L2 lexical semantic representations, such that L1 representations are richly populated and L2 representations are not. According to this representational account, L2-L1 priming does not occur in lexical decision because an insufficient proportion of the L1 lexical semantic representation is activated by the L2 prime. In semantic categorization, we argue that the semantic information recruited to generate a decision is restricted by the task category, and that this restriction enhances the effectiveness of the L2 prime. In Experiments 4-6, these assumptions were tested in a within-language setting by pairing many-sense words (e.g., ''head'') with few-sense words (e.g., ''skull''). In lexical decision, robust priming was obtained in the many-to-few direction (analogous to L1-L2), but, no priming was obtained in the fewto-many direction (analogous to L2-L1) using the same word pairs. Priming in semantic categorization, on the other hand, was obtained in both directions. We propose the Sense Model as a possible account of these findings.

Many recent models of language comprehension have stressed the role of distributional frequencies in determining the relative accessibility or ease of processing associated with a particular lexical item or sentence structure. However, there exist relatively few comprehensive analyses of structural frequencies, and little consideration has been given to the appropriateness of using any particular set of corpus frequencies in modeling human language. We provide a comprehensive set of structural frequencies for a variety of written and spoken corpora, focusing on structures that have played a critical role in debates on normal psycholinguistics, aphasia, and child language acquisition, and compare our results with those from several recent papers to illustrate the implications and limitations of using corpus data in psycholinguistic research.

The access of idiomatic expressions was investigated in three cross-modal priming experiments. When the idiomatic string was predictable, subjects were faster at performing a lexical decision to idiomatically related targets than to literally related targets (Experiment 1). When the string was not recognizable as idiomatic until its completion, then subjects were faster on the target literally related to the last word (Experiment 2). Lexical decision for the same materials used in Experiment 2, when target words were presented 300 ms after the end of idiom was heard, was faster both for targets related to the last word and for the idiomatic meaning of the string, relative to control targets (Experiment 3). Neither the direct access model nor the lexical representation model seems adequate to explain the present findings. A new hypothesis concerning the representation and the processing of idioms is presented. 63

The Battig and Montague (1969) category norms have been an invaluable tool for researchers in many fields, with a recent literature search revealing their use in over 1600 projects published in more than 200 different journals. Since 1969, numerous changes have occurred culturally that warrant the collection of new normative data. For instance, in the mid-1960s, the waltz was a popular dance, and undergraduates wore rubbers on their feet. To meet the need for updated norms, we report an expanded version of the Battig and Montague norms, based on responses from three different sites varying in geographical locations within the United States. The norms were expanded to include new categories (e.g., ad hoc categories) and new measures, most notably latencies for the generated responses. Analyses demonstrated high levels of geographical stability across the new sites, with lower and more variable levels of generational stability between the Battig and Montague norms and the current norms.

To get a better understanding of the nature of the English writing system, new techniques are introduced for measuring how strongly the orthography of one part of the syllable (onset, vowel, and coda) is influenced by the other two parts. The use of conditional consistency measures with permutation tests of significance determines how much more regular sound-letter correspondences become when other parts of the syllable are taken into account. A study of English monosyllabic words presents results for both reading (letters to sounds) and spelling (sounds to letters) and both adult and child vocabulary. In all cases, vowel and coda (which constitute the rime) are much more strongly conditioned by each other than are other pairs. These techniques and findings improve our understanding of the English writing system and provide a foundation for a better understanding of reading and spelling processes in children and adults. . with the data and Ram Frost and two anonymous reviewers for helpful comments on an earlier draft. A full list of words used in the study, a list of the subjectively deleted words, and data on letter-to-sound and sound-to-letter correspondences for each segment may be found at

In describing the phonotactics (patterning of phonemes) of English syllables, linguists have focused on absolute restrictions concerning which phonemes may occupy which slots of the syllable. To determine whether probabilistic patterns also exist, we analyzed the distributions of phonemes in a reasonably comprehensive list of uninflected English CVC (consonant-vowelconsonant) words, some 2001 words in all. The results showed that there is a significant connection between the vowel and the following consonant (coda), with certain vowel-coda combinations being more frequent than expected by chance. In contrast, we did not find significant associations between the initial consonant (onset) and the vowel. These findings support the idea that English CVC syllables are composed of an onset and a vowel-coda rime. Implications for lexical processing are discussed. ᭧ 1997 Academic Press

Slippery slope arguments (SSAs) have a bad philosophical reputation. They seem, however, to be widely used and frequently accepted in many legal, political, and ethical contexts. argued that distinguishing strong and weak SSAs may have a rational basis in Bayesian decision theory. In this paper three experiments investigated the mechanism of the slippery slope showing that they may have an objective basis in category boundary re-appraisal. When the beginning and the end of a slippery slope are more similar, the probability that they are perceived to belong in the same category is higher and the SSA is stronger. Experiment 1 established a robust effect of probability on SSA evaluation. Experiments 2 and 2A showed that when similar items are classified in the same category this leads to stronger SSAs. In Experiment 3, in a correlational analysis, it was shown that participants' confidence in their categorisation judgements predicted the perceived strength of an SSA and that this relationship was moderated by similarity between the ends of the slippery slope. We conclude that an important aspect of many SSAs may have an objective basis in well-established and rational cognitive theories.

Two tasks were used to study the syllabification of intervocalic consonants like the /V's of melon and collide. In an oral task, subjects reversed the syllables in words; in a written task, they selected between alternative syllabifications. Even in the oral task, subjects' responses were influenced by whether their spellings of the words contained a single letter (r) or a double letter (10. Responses in the two tasks were also affected by the stress pattern of the word, the phonetic category of the intervocalic consonant, and the nature of the preceding vowel. The results are discussed in relation to theories of syllabification. o 1988

To get a better understanding of the nature of the English writing system, new techniques are introduced for measuring how strongly the orthography of one part of the syllable (onset, vowel, and coda) is influenced by the other two parts. The use of conditional consistency measures with permutation tests of significance determines how much more regular sound-letter correspondences become when other parts of the syllable are taken into account. A study of English monosyllabic words presents results for both reading (letters to sounds) and spelling (sounds to letters) and both adult and child vocabulary. In all cases, vowel and coda (which constitute the rime) are much more strongly conditioned by each other than are other pairs. These techniques and findings improve our understanding of the English writing system and provide a foundation for a better understanding of reading and spelling processes in children and adults. . with the data and Ram Frost and two anonymous reviewers for helpful comments on an earlier draft. A full list of words used in the study, a list of the subjectively deleted words, and data on letter-to-sound and sound-to-letter correspondences for each segment may be found at

Comparisons of bilinguals and monolinguals have typically found poorer performance by bilinguals in a variety of memory tasks. However, these studies have used bilinguals who were not native speakers of the monolingual's language, and who were often required to process both languages during the session. In the present study, Native English-speaking bilinguals were compared to English monolinguals on four verbal memory tasks: episodic recognition, lexical decision, object naming, and free recall. Only English words were used in the session to avoid activation of the second language. There were no differences in accuracy between groups on any task. Bilinguals were slower than monolinguals, but only for the list recognition and lexical decision tasks, where language-specific, data-driven pro-CeSSing predominates.

In a character decision task, phonetic compound targets (composed of a semantic radical and a phonetic component) followed primes that shared (a) the target's radical and were semantically related (RϩSϩ), (b) the target's radical and were not semantically related (RϩSϪ), (c) no radical but were semantically related (RϪSϩ), and (d) no radical and were not semantically related (RϪSϪ). Target radicals also varied as to the number of compounds in which they appeared (i.e., combinability). When targets followed primes immediately (Experiment 1; SOA 243 ms), target latencies following RϩSϪ primes were slowed relative to RϪSϪ controls but those following RϩSϩ and RϪSϩ primes were facilitated equivalently. Increases in combinability significantly reduced decision latencies. When 10 items separated primes and targets (Experiment 2), facilitation was evident only after RϩSϩ primes. Results indicate that one type of component, the semantic radical, is processed in the course of Chinese character recognition and that orthographic similarity due to repetition of a radical is not an adequate account.