Do postonset segments define a lexical neighborhood?

Area of Science:

• Psycholinguistics
• Cognitive Psychology
• Speech Perception

Background:

• Lexical neighborhood effects are known to influence speech perception.
• Previous studies focused on initial sound matches (cohorts) for lexical access.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the scope of lexical neighborhood effects in word recognition.
• To determine if words differing only in the first phoneme affect lexical access.
• To challenge the idea that word onsets have a unique role in word recognition.

Main Methods:

• Utilized lexical decision tasks.
• Employed phoneme identification tasks.
• Examined nonwords and real words in relation to their lexical neighbors.

Main Results:

• Lexical neighborhood effects were observed for words that do not match the target's initial syllable.
• Words differing from the target word solely in the first phoneme significantly influenced lexical access.
• These findings indicate broader lexical neighborhood influences than previously assumed.

Conclusions:

• Lexical neighborhood effects are not restricted to the initial sounds of a word (cohort).
• Word recognition is influenced by words that differ in their initial phoneme.
• The findings argue against a special or unique role for word onsets in the process of word recognition.