Phonological representations in prelexical speech processing: Evidence from form-based priming

Five form-based priming experiments examined whether phonological representations are used for lexical access during speech recognition. The effects of final phonological overlap between spoken monosyllabic target words and preceding primes on the recognition of those target words were examined. In Experiment 1, single-word shadowing latencies decreased as the number of phonemes shared between primes and targets increased. The greatest facilitation was observed when primes and targets rhymed. In Experiment 2, the number of shared phonemes was controlled. There was an influence of shared rime on shadowing performance in addition to that due to overlapping segments. Experiment 3 replicated this finding and showed that there was equivalent facilitation with word and nonword primes. Facilitation in shadowing short words was observed in Experiment 4 only when primes and targets rhymed. In Experiment 5, listeners responded to the same primes and targets as in Experiment 4; the items were presented for continuous lexical decision in an undifferentiated list. Facilitation was observed only when targets immediately followed primes with which they rhymed. Final-overlap facilitation appears to reflect two processes: a bias based on the perceptual salience of rhyme, and the activation of prelexical phonological representations. (C) 2000 Academic Press.