{"id":{"repo_id":"buffalo","oai_identifier":"oai:ubir.buffalo.edu:10477/86830"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/buffalo/oai:ubir.buffalo.edu:10477/86830","repository":{"repo_id":"buffalo","name":"Buffalo","base_url":"https://ubir.buffalo.edu/oai/request"},"display":{"title":"The Roles of Word Frequency, Neighborhood Density, and Phonotactic Probability in Spoken Word Recognition in a Non-Native Language","abstract":"Ph.D.","abstract_html":"Ph.D.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Abrahamyan, Hayk"],"institution":"State University of New York at Buffalo","degree_name":null,"degree_level":null,"degree_discipline":null,"degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Luce, Paul","Psychology"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2025,"date_issued":"2025-02-25T23:23:12Z","date_published":"2025-02-25T23:23:12Z","updated_at":"2026-07-27T19:05:37Z","subjects":["cognitive psychology","language experience","neighborhood density","non-native language","phonotactic probability","proficiency","spoken word recognition","word frequency"],"languages":["eng"],"rights":["Users of works found in University at Buffalo Institutional Repository (UBIR) are responsible for identifying and contacting the copyright owner for permission to reuse. University at Buffalo Libraries do not manage rights for copyright-protected works and cannot assist with permissions.","Copyright retained by author."],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"http://hdl.handle.net/10477/86830","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Luce, Paul","Psychology"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Abrahamyan, Hayk"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date","label":"Dc Date","values":["2025-02-25T23:23:12Z","2020","2020-08-10 19:23:15"]},{"key":"dc:publisher","label":"Institution","values":["State University of New York at Buffalo"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["Text","Dissertation"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["cognitive psychology","language experience","neighborhood density","non-native language","phonotactic probability","proficiency","spoken word recognition","word frequency"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language","label":"Dc Language","values":["eng"]},{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["Users of works found in University at Buffalo Institutional Repository (UBIR) are responsible for identifying and contacting the copyright owner for permission to reuse. University at Buffalo Libraries do not manage rights for copyright-protected works and cannot assist with permissions.","Copyright retained by author."]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["http://hdl.handle.net/10477/86830"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description","label":"Description","values":["Ph.D.","Prior research has identified specific types of implicit linguistic knowledge that influence spoken word recognition (SWR), particularly word frequency, neighborhood density, and phonotactic probability. Almost all of this research has focused on native speakers, primarily English speakers. Much less research on these factors has examined their influence for non-native listeners. Research that does examine second or subsequent non-native language processing has focused on the effect of knowledge of sounds in a native language on the perception of non-native sounds (e.g., the influence of the knowledge of Japanese as a native language on the acquisition and recognition of English sounds r and l). Thus, little is known about how implicit linguistic knowledge in a non-native language affects word recognition in that language. The central goal of this study was to examine how higher-level or \"top-down\" language-specific knowledge, such as knowledge of word frequency, neighborhood density, and phonotactics, affects word recognition in a non-native language, and how experience with a non-native language modulates the use of such higher-level linguistic knowledge. The present study differed from previous studies of non-native SWR in several ways: (1) the effects of word frequency, neighborhood density, and phonotactic probability for native and non-native listeners of American English were examined; (2) stimuli consisted of verbs and were presented in a cross-modal identity priming paradigm in quiet (Experiment 1) and in a spoken word identification paradigm in noise (Experiment 2); (3) both accuracy (E1 and E2) and reaction time (E2) measures of processing were examined; (4) non-native listeners varied in their English language proficiency, which was measured on a continuous scale; (5) subjective word frequency ratings were collected to evaluate the efficacy of corpus derived frequency counts for non-native listeners; and (6) mixed-effects models were used to evaluate independent effects of the variables of interest while accounting for various control variables (e.g. trial order and prime duration) and for crossed random-effects for participants and items. The results revealed that native and non-native listeners were affected by the three factors of interest, indicating that non-native listeners had developed sensitivity to word frequency, neighborhood density, and phonotactic probability effects. In addition, English language proficiency had a large impact on performance. Less proficient non-native listeners generally displayed larger effects, reflecting less exposure to English word-forms and smaller lexicons, whereas more proficient listeners approached native listeners in their performance, reflecting more extensive experience in English and larger lexicons. Native listeners and more proficient non-native listeners displayed lexical competition effects. In contrast, less proficient non-native listeners appeared to show a segmental phonotactic probability effect, reflecting less experience in English but sensitivity to segmental phonotactic probabilities. Finally, interactions of the factors of interest with the verb type (regular, irregular, and irregular in the past tense) complicated the findings and may challenge the tacit assumption in the literature that word frequency, neighborhood density and phonotactic probability in SWR apply uniformly to all word types in all cases, irrespective of word morphology.","**To request an accessible version of the file(s) associated with this item, contact library@buffalo.edu. Please include the item's persistent URL [http://hdl.handle.net/. . .] in your request.**"]},{"key":"dc:format","label":"Dc Format","values":["application/pdf"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["The Roles of Word Frequency, Neighborhood Density, and Phonotactic Probability in Spoken Word Recognition in a Non-Native Language"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Luce, Paul","Psychology"],"dc:creator":["Abrahamyan, Hayk"],"dc:date":["2025-02-25T23:23:12Z","2020","2020-08-10 19:23:15"],"dc:description":["Ph.D.","Prior research has identified specific types of implicit linguistic knowledge that influence spoken word recognition (SWR), particularly word frequency, neighborhood density, and phonotactic probability. Almost all of this research has focused on native speakers, primarily English speakers. Much less research on these factors has examined their influence for non-native listeners. Research that does examine second or subsequent non-native language processing has focused on the effect of knowledge of sounds in a native language on the perception of non-native sounds (e.g., the influence of the knowledge of Japanese as a native language on the acquisition and recognition of English sounds r and l). Thus, little is known about how implicit linguistic knowledge in a non-native language affects word recognition in that language. The central goal of this study was to examine how higher-level or \"top-down\" language-specific knowledge, such as knowledge of word frequency, neighborhood density, and phonotactics, affects word recognition in a non-native language, and how experience with a non-native language modulates the use of such higher-level linguistic knowledge. The present study differed from previous studies of non-native SWR in several ways: (1) the effects of word frequency, neighborhood density, and phonotactic probability for native and non-native listeners of American English were examined; (2) stimuli consisted of verbs and were presented in a cross-modal identity priming paradigm in quiet (Experiment 1) and in a spoken word identification paradigm in noise (Experiment 2); (3) both accuracy (E1 and E2) and reaction time (E2) measures of processing were examined; (4) non-native listeners varied in their English language proficiency, which was measured on a continuous scale; (5) subjective word frequency ratings were collected to evaluate the efficacy of corpus derived frequency counts for non-native listeners; and (6) mixed-effects models were used to evaluate independent effects of the variables of interest while accounting for various control variables (e.g. trial order and prime duration) and for crossed random-effects for participants and items. The results revealed that native and non-native listeners were affected by the three factors of interest, indicating that non-native listeners had developed sensitivity to word frequency, neighborhood density, and phonotactic probability effects. In addition, English language proficiency had a large impact on performance. Less proficient non-native listeners generally displayed larger effects, reflecting less exposure to English word-forms and smaller lexicons, whereas more proficient listeners approached native listeners in their performance, reflecting more extensive experience in English and larger lexicons. Native listeners and more proficient non-native listeners displayed lexical competition effects. In contrast, less proficient non-native listeners appeared to show a segmental phonotactic probability effect, reflecting less experience in English but sensitivity to segmental phonotactic probabilities. Finally, interactions of the factors of interest with the verb type (regular, irregular, and irregular in the past tense) complicated the findings and may challenge the tacit assumption in the literature that word frequency, neighborhood density and phonotactic probability in SWR apply uniformly to all word types in all cases, irrespective of word morphology.","**To request an accessible version of the file(s) associated with this item, contact library@buffalo.edu. Please include the item's persistent URL [http://hdl.handle.net/. . .] in your request.**"],"dc:format":["application/pdf"],"dc:identifier":["http://hdl.handle.net/10477/86830"],"dc:language":["eng"],"dc:publisher":["State University of New York at Buffalo"],"dc:rights":["Users of works found in University at Buffalo Institutional Repository (UBIR) are responsible for identifying and contacting the copyright owner for permission to reuse. University at Buffalo Libraries do not manage rights for copyright-protected works and cannot assist with permissions.","Copyright retained by author."],"dc:subject":["cognitive psychology","language experience","neighborhood density","non-native language","phonotactic probability","proficiency","spoken word recognition","word frequency"],"dc:title":["The Roles of Word Frequency, Neighborhood Density, and Phonotactic Probability in Spoken Word Recognition in a Non-Native Language"],"dc:type":["Text","Dissertation"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-27T19:05:37Z"}