Abstract
Lexical effects in auditory rhyme-decision performance were examined in three experiments. Experiment 1 showed reliable lexical involvement: rhyme-monitoring responses to words were faster than rhyme-monitoring responses to nonwords; and decisions were faster in response to high-frequency as opposed to low-frequency words. Experiments 2 and 3 tested for lexical influences in the rejection of three types of nonrhyming item: words, nonwords with rhyming lexical neighbors (e.g.,jop after the cuerob), and nonwords with no rhyming lexical neighbor (e.g.,vop afterrob). Words were rejected more rapidly than nonwords, and there were reliable differences in the speed and accuracy of rejection of the two types of nonword. The advantage for words over nonwords was replicated for positive rhyme decisions. However, there were no differences in the speed of acceptance, as rhymes, of the two types of nonword. The implications of these results for interactive and autonomous models of spoken word recognition are discussed. It is concluded that the differences in rejection of nonrhyming nonwords are due to the operation of a guessing strategy.
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This research was supported by an MRC Research Studentship, and by Joint Councils Initiative Grant E304/148. It forms part of a doctoral dissertation submitted to the University of Cambridge. Experiments 2 and 3 were reported at the Cambridge meeting of the Experimental Psychology Society in July 1989.
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McQueen, J.M. Rhyme decisions to spoken words and nonwords. Mem Cogn 21, 210–222 (1993). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03202734
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03202734