Abstract
A word can be pronounced by applying spelling-sound correspondence rules or by looking up its pronunciation in the lexicon. In contrast, a novel string with no lexical entry should be pronounceable only through rule application. Recent research, though, suggests that lexical information may contribute to the pronunciation of nonwords (Glushko, 1979; Marcel, 1980). The present three experiments tested this possibility with the logic of spreading activation. Experiment 1 found a decrease in naming latencies for target words preceded by either related words or pseudowords created from those words, implicating lexical activity in pseudoword pronunciation. In Experiment 2, words visually similar to target pseudowords were semantically primed prior to pseudoword presentation, but the expected facilitation in pseudoword naming did not appear. Experiment 3 provided strong support for the hypothesis, however, demonstrating a marked bias in the pronunciation chosen for an ambiguous pseudoword as the result of priming a visually similar word.
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The research reported here was conducted while the author was a predoctoral fellow at the Center for Cognitive Science at the University of Texas at Austin, with the support of a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
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Rosson, M.B. From SOFA to LOUCH: Lexical contributions to pseudoword pronunciation. Mem Cogn 11, 152–160 (1983). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03213470
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03213470