Authors:

Marslen-Wilson, W.D.

Reference:

Year of publication:

1987

CBU number:

2152

Abstract:

The process of spoken word-recognition breaks down into three basic functions, of access, selection and integration. Access concerns the mapping of the speech input onto the representations of lexical form, selection concerns the discrimination of the best-fitting match to this input, and integration covers the mapping of syntactic and semantic information at the lexical level onto higher levels of processing. This paper describes two versions of a "cohort"-based model of these processes, showing how it evolves from a partially interactive model, where access is strictly autonomous but selection is subject to top-down control, to a fully bottom-up model, w here context plays no role in the processes of form-based access and selection. Context operates instead at the interface between higher-level representations and information generated on-line about the syntactic and semantic properties of members of the cohort. The new model retains intact the fundamental characteristics of a cohort-based word-recognition process. It embodies the concepts of multiple access and multiple assessment, allowing a maximally efficient recognition process, based on the principles of the contingency of perceptual choice.