Lexical and sublexical knowledge influences the encoding, storage, and articulation of nonwords

Nonword repetition (NWR) has been used extensively in the study of child language. Although lexical and sublexical knowledge is known to influence NWR performance, there has been little examination of the NWR processes (e.g., encoding, storage, and articulation) that may be affected by lexical and sublexical knowledge. We administered two- and three-syllable spoken nonword recognition and nonword repetition tests on two independent groups of 31 children (mean age = 5 years 7 months). Spoken nonword recognition primarily involves encoding and storage, whereas NWR involves an additional articulation process. The influence of lexical and sublexical knowledge was determined by examining the number of lexical errors produced. There was clear involvement of long-term lexical and sublexical knowledge in both spoken nonword recognition and NWR. In spoken nonword recognition, twice as many errors involved selecting a foil that contained a lexical item (e.g., 'yashukup') as involved selecting a foil that contained only nonsense syllables (e.g., 'yashunup'). In repetition, over 30% of errors changed a nonsense syllable to a lexical item. Our results show that long-term lexical and sublexical knowledge is pervasive in NWR. Any explanation of NWR performance must therefore consider the influence of lexical and sublexical knowledge throughout the whole repetition process, from the encoding to the articulation of nonwords.