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Reading spoken words: orthographic effects in auditory priming
Céline Chéreau1, M Gareth Gaskell, Nicolas Dumay
1Department of Psychology, University of York, Heslington, York YO10 5DD, UK.
Cognition
|February 17, 2006
Summary
This study reveals that written word forms (orthography) significantly influence spoken word recognition. Even when only hearing words, the brain appears to activate their spelling, impacting processing speed.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Psycholinguistics
- Neuroscience
Background:
- Spoken word recognition is typically understood as a primarily auditory process.
- The role of visual word form (orthography) in processing spoken language is debated.
- Prelexical representations are thought to be activated early in spoken word recognition.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the involvement of orthography in spoken word processing.
- To determine if orthographic information is activated during auditory word recognition.
- To examine how the degree of orthographic overlap affects phonological priming.
Main Methods:
- Three experiments utilized unimodal auditory priming with offset overlap.
- Prime-target pairs varied in phonological overlap and degree of orthographic overlap.
- Tasks included lexical decision and pseudoword detection.
Main Results:
- Phonological priming effects were observed in all experiments.
- Priming was significantly modulated by the degree of orthographic overlap between prime and target words.
- An 'orthographic boost' was evident even in tasks without explicit visual input.
Conclusions:
- Orthographic activation occurs mandatorily during spoken word recognition.
- Written word forms play a more substantial role in speech perception than previously assumed.
- These findings challenge purely auditory models of spoken language processing.
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