IMPLICATING THE LEXICON - BASE-WORD FREQUENCY-EFFECTS IN PSEUDOHOMOPHONE NAMING

Ss named pseudohomophones (e.g., phocks) and nonpseudohomophones (e.g., snocks) under conditions in which words were or were not included in the stimulus lists. For Ss classified as fast responders, pseudohomophone advantages were not accompanied with base-word frequency effects. For slow responders, pseudohomophone naming was related to base-word frequency, but only when words were included in the stimulus lists. A dual-route model is proposed in which (a) lexical representations are frequency sensitive, (b) the relative use of nonlexical vs. lexical information in phonological synthesis depends on strategic factors, and (c) overlapping lexical and nonlexical codes are assumed to lengthen processing time at the level of a phonological buffer.