Neighborhood Density and Word Recognition: Effects of Phoneme Position

<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>

Name thesis:degree_name

PhD

Level thesis:degree_level

Campus Access Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Communication Sciences and Disorders

Year

2009

Author dc:creator

• Prescott, Tiffany Conyers

Contributors dc:contributor

• Hiram L. McDade

Statement dc:rights

• © 2009, Tiffany Conyers Prescott

Repository record dc:identifier

https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/etd/82

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:scholarcommons.sc.edu:etd-1083