Authors:

NORRIS, D.G., Mcqueen, J.M. & Cutler, E.A.

Reference:

Year of publication:

2002

CBU number:

5132

Abstract:

Four experiments examined the facilitation which occurs when target spoken words rhyme with preceding spoken primes. In Experiment 1, listeners' lexical decisions were faster to words following rhyming words (e.g., ramp-LAMP) than to words following unrelated primes (e.g., pink-LAMP). No facilitation was observed for nonword targets. Targets which almost rhymed with their primes (foils, e.g., bulk-SULSH) were included in Experiment 2; facilitation for rhyming targets was severely attenuated. Experiments 3 and 4 were single-word shadowing variants of the earlier experiments. There was facilitation for both rhyming words and nonwords; the presence of foils had no significant influence on the priming effect. A major component of the facilitation in lexical decision appears to be strategic: Listeners are biased to say "yes" to targets which rhyme with their primes, unless foils discourage this strategy. The non-strategic component of phonological facilitation may reflect speech perception processes which operate prior to lexical access.