Serial order in phonological encoding: an exploration of the 'word onset effect' using laboratory-induced errors

Area of Science:

• Psycholinguistics
• Phonetics
• Speech Production

Background:

• Slips of the tongue often involve word onsets more than other word positions.
• Theories suggest this may be due to phonological properties or the role of onsets in speech sequencing.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate whether the word onset effect in speech errors is driven by phonological factors or speech planning mechanisms.
• To differentiate between phonological explanations and those related to lexical processing.

Main Methods:

• Utilized a tongue-twister paradigm with visually presented word quadruples.
• Manipulated the lexical status of words (real words vs. nonwords) while controlling phonological characteristics.
• Analyzed speech error patterns, specifically focusing on word onset errors.

Main Results:

• A significant word onset effect was observed for real word targets, particularly in between-word errors.
• Nonword targets did not exhibit a word onset effect, even when considering between-word errors.
• Phonological characteristics did not fully explain the observed onset effect.

Conclusions:

• The word onset effect in speech errors is not solely attributable to phonological factors.
• Findings support the role of higher-level speech planning and lexical processing in the word onset effect.
• A novel account proposes order-based competition at the lexical level drives the word onset effect.