An Examination of Word Frequency and Neighborhood Density in the Development of Spoken-word Recognition

Overview

Journal Mem Cognit

Specialty Psychology

Date 1997 Jan 1

PMID 9046869

Citations 65

Authors

J L Metsala

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

In this study, the effects of word-frequency and phonological similarity relations in the development of spoken-word recognition were examined. Seven-, 9-, and 11-year-olds and adults listened to increasingly longer segments of high- and low-frequency monosyllabic words with many or few word neighbors that sounded similar (neighborhood density). Older children and adults required less of the acoustic-phonetic information to recognize words with few neighbors and low-frequency words than did younger children. Adults recognized high-frequency words with few neighbors on the basis of less input than did all three of the children's groups. All subjects showed a higher proportion of different-word guesses for words with many versus few neighbors. A frequency x neighborhood density interaction revealed that recognition is facilitated for high-frequency words with few versus many neighbors; the opposite was found for low-frequency words. Results are placed within a developmental framework on the emergence of the phoneme as a unit in perceptual processing.

Citing Articles

The Importance of High-Frequency Bandwidth on Speech and Language Development in Children: A Review of Patricia Stelmachowicz's Contributions to Pediatric Audiology.

Walker E Semin Hear. 2023; 44(Suppl 1):S3-S16.

PMID: 36970651 PMC: 10033203. DOI: 10.1055/s-0043-1764138.

The Relationship Between Speech Perception, Speech Production, and Vocabulary Abilities in Children: Insights From By-Group and Continuous Analyses.

Hearnshaw S, Baker E, Pomper R, McGregor K, Edwards J, Munro N J Speech Lang Hear Res. 2023; 66(4):1173-1191.

PMID: 36940475 PMC: 10715842. DOI: 10.1044/2022_JSLHR-22-00441.

Speech Error Variability and Phonological Awareness in Preschoolers.

Roepke E, Brosseau-Lapre F Am J Speech Lang Pathol. 2022; 32(1):246-263.

PMID: 36580542 PMC: 10023149. DOI: 10.1044/2022_AJSLP-22-00031.

The development of lexical inhibition in spoken word recognition.

Blomquist C, McMurray B Dev Psychol. 2022; 59(1):186-206.

PMID: 36227288 PMC: 11022823. DOI: 10.1037/dev0001457.

Cross-linguistic contributions of acoustic cues and prosodic awareness to first and second language vocabulary knowledge.

Chung W, Jarmulowicz L, Bidelman G J Res Read. 2022; 44(2):434-452.

PMID: 35782599 PMC: 9248869. DOI: 10.1111/1467-9817.12349.

References

Marslen-Wilson W . Functional parallelism in spoken word-recognition. Cognition. 1987; 25(1-2):71-102. DOI: 10.1016/0010-0277(87)90005-9. View

Goldinger S, Luce P, Pisoni D . Priming Lexical Neighbors of Spoken Words: Effects of Competition and Inhibition. J Mem Lang. 2014; 28(5):501-518. PMC: 3901307. DOI: 10.1016/0749-596x(89)90009-0. View

Walley A, Smith L, Jusczyk P . The role of phonemes and syllables in the perceived similarity of speech sounds for children. Mem Cognit. 1986; 14(3):220-9. DOI: 10.3758/bf03197696. View

Elliott L, Hammer M, Evan K . Perception of gated, highly familiar spoken monosyllabic nouns by children, teenagers, and older adults. Percept Psychophys. 1987; 42(2):150-7. DOI: 10.3758/bf03210503. View

Grosjean F . Spoken word recognition processes and the gating paradigm. Percept Psychophys. 1980; 28(4):267-83. DOI: 10.3758/bf03204386. View

Seidenberg M, McClelland J . A distributed, developmental model of word recognition and naming. Psychol Rev. 1989; 96(4):523-68. DOI: 10.1037/0033-295x.96.4.523. View

Charles-Luce J, Luce P . Similarity neighbourhoods of words in young children's lexicons. J Child Lang. 1990; 17(1):205-15. DOI: 10.1017/s0305000900013180. View

Charles-Luce J, Luce P . An examination of similarity neighbourhoods in young children's receptive vocabularies. J Child Lang. 1995; 22(3):727-35. DOI: 10.1017/s0305000900010023. View

Nittrouer S, Studdert-Kennedy M . The role of coarticulatory effects in the perception of fricatives by children and adults. J Speech Hear Res. 1987; 30(3):319-29. DOI: 10.1044/jshr.3003.319. View

10.

Walley A, Michela V, Wood D . The gating paradigm: effects of presentation format on spoken word recognition by children and adults. Percept Psychophys. 1995; 57(3):343-51. DOI: 10.3758/bf03213059. View

11.

Cotton S, Grosjean F . The gating paradigm: a comparison of successive and individual presentation formats. Percept Psychophys. 1984; 35(1):41-8. DOI: 10.3758/bf03205923. View

12.

Brown G, Watson F . First in, first out: word learning age and spoken word frequency as predictors of word familiarity and word naming latency. Mem Cognit. 1987; 15(3):208-16. DOI: 10.3758/bf03197718. View

13.

Walley A, Metsala J . Young children's age-of-acquisition estimates for spoken words. Mem Cognit. 1992; 20(2):171-82. DOI: 10.3758/bf03197166. View

14.

Bradley L, Bryant P . Difficulties in auditory organisation as a possible cause of reading backwardness. Nature. 1978; 271(5647):746-7. DOI: 10.1038/271746a0. View

15.

Tyler L, Wessels J . Is gating an on-line task? Evidence from naming latency data. Percept Psychophys. 1985; 38(3):217-22. DOI: 10.3758/bf03207148. View

16.

Pisoni D, Luce P . Acoustic-phonetic representations in word recognition. Cognition. 1987; 25(1-2):21-52. PMC: 3514860. DOI: 10.1016/0010-0277(87)90003-5. View

17.

Elliott L, Clifton L, Servi D . Word frequency effects for a closed-set word identification task. Audiology. 1983; 22(3):229-40. DOI: 10.3109/00206098309072787. View

18.

Elliott L, Scholl M, Grant J, Hammer M . Perception of gated, highly familiar spoken monosyllabic nouns by children with and without learning disabilities. J Learn Disabil. 1990; 23(4):248-52, 259. DOI: 10.1177/002221949002300408. View

19.

Treiman R, Breaux A . Common phoneme and overall similarity relations among spoken syllables: their use by children and adults. J Psycholinguist Res. 1982; 11(6):569-98. DOI: 10.1007/BF01067613. View

20.

Grosjean F . The recognition of words after their acoustic offset: evidence and implications. Percept Psychophys. 1985; 38(4):299-310. DOI: 10.3758/bf03207159. View