Consonant Age-of-Acquisition Effects in Nonword Repetition Are Not Articulatory in Nature

Most research examining long-term-memory effects on nonword repetition (NWR) has focused on lexical-level variables. Phoneme-level variables have received little attention, although there are reasons to expect significant sublexical effects in NWR. To further understand the underlying processes of NWR, this study examined effects of sublexical long-term phonological knowledge by testing whether performance differs when the stimuli comprise consonants acquired later versus earlier in speech development.

Thirty (Experiment 1) and 20 (Experiment 2) college students completed tasks that investigated whether an experimental phoneme-level variable (consonant age of acquisition) similarly affects NWR and lexical-access tasks designed to vary in articulatory, auditory-perceptual, and phonological short-term-memory demands. The lexical-access tasks were performed in silence or with concurrent articulation to explore whether consonant age-of-acquisition effects arise before or after articulatory planning.

NWR accuracy decreased on items comprising later- versus earlier-acquired phonemes. Similar consonant age-of-acquisition effects were observed in accuracy measures of nonword reading and lexical decision performed in silence or with concurrent articulation.

Results indicate that NWR performance is sensitive to phoneme-level phonological knowledge in long-term memory. NWR, accordingly, should not be regarded as a diagnostic tool for pure impairment of phonological short-term memory.

https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.5435137.