There is considerable interest in how individuals process single words when they are heard. An examination of the literature reveals an interesting, yet little-explored contradiction between the assumptions underlying the neighborhood activation model (NAM) and contemporary models of word retrieval. In this study, participants listened to CVC words and non-words with the following characteristics: 1) dense initial and sparse final consonant neighborhoods, 2) sparse initial and dense final consonant neighborhoods, 3) dense initial and dense final consonant neighborhoods, and 4) sparse initial and sparse final neighborhoods. Results indicated that, as a group, words with large final consonant neighborhoods produced longer response times than words with large initial consonant neighborhoods. These findings are discussed in terms of modified predictions of the NAM.
","abstract_html":"<p>There is considerable interest in how individuals process single words when they are heard. An examination of the literature reveals an interesting, yet little-explored contradiction between the assumptions underlying the neighborhood activation model (NAM) and contemporary models of word retrieval. In this study, participants listened to CVC words and non-words with the following characteristics: 1) dense initial and sparse final consonant neighborhoods, 2) sparse initial and dense final consonant neighborhoods, 3) dense initial and dense final consonant neighborhoods, and 4) sparse initial and sparse final neighborhoods. Results indicated that, as a group, words with large final consonant neighborhoods produced longer response times than words with large initial consonant neighborhoods. These findings are discussed in terms of modified predictions of the NAM.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Prescott, Tiffany Conyers"],"institution":null,"degree_name":"PhD","degree_level":"Campus Access Dissertation","degree_discipline":"Communication Sciences and Disorders","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Hiram L. McDade"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2009,"date_issued":"2009-01-01T08:00:00Z","date_published":"2009-01-01T08:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T04:36:43Z","subjects":[],"languages":[],"rights":["© 2009, Tiffany Conyers Prescott"],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/etd/82","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Hiram L. McDade"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Prescott, Tiffany Conyers"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Communication Sciences and Disorders"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Campus Access Dissertation"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["PhD"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["© 2009, Tiffany Conyers Prescott"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/etd/82"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["There is considerable interest in how individuals process single words when they are heard. An examination of the literature reveals an interesting, yet little-explored contradiction between the assumptions underlying the neighborhood activation model (NAM) and contemporary models of word retrieval. In this study, participants listened to CVC words and non-words with the following characteristics: 1) dense initial and sparse final consonant neighborhoods, 2) sparse initial and dense final consonant neighborhoods, 3) dense initial and dense final consonant neighborhoods, and 4) sparse initial and sparse final neighborhoods. Results indicated that, as a group, words with large final consonant neighborhoods produced longer response times than words with large initial consonant neighborhoods. These findings are discussed in terms of modified predictions of the NAM.
"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Neighborhood Density and Word Recognition: Effects of Phoneme Position"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Hiram L. McDade"],"dc:creator":["Prescott, Tiffany Conyers"],"dc:description.abstract":["There is considerable interest in how individuals process single words when they are heard. An examination of the literature reveals an interesting, yet little-explored contradiction between the assumptions underlying the neighborhood activation model (NAM) and contemporary models of word retrieval. In this study, participants listened to CVC words and non-words with the following characteristics: 1) dense initial and sparse final consonant neighborhoods, 2) sparse initial and dense final consonant neighborhoods, 3) dense initial and dense final consonant neighborhoods, and 4) sparse initial and sparse final neighborhoods. Results indicated that, as a group, words with large final consonant neighborhoods produced longer response times than words with large initial consonant neighborhoods. These findings are discussed in terms of modified predictions of the NAM.
"],"dc:identifier":["https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/etd/82"],"dc:rights":["© 2009, Tiffany Conyers Prescott"],"dc:title":["Neighborhood Density and Word Recognition: Effects of Phoneme Position"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Communication Sciences and Disorders"],"thesis:degree_level":["Campus Access Dissertation"],"thesis:degree_name":["PhD"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T04:36:43Z"}