Can semantic constraint reduce the role of word frequency during spoken-word recognition?

Abstract

There is increasing evidence that the properties of a spoken word such as its length or its phonotactic configuration interact with the preceding semantic context during word recognition: the more constraining the context, the less important the role of the word properties. The gating paradigm (Grosjean, 1980) was used to show that the impact of the frequency of occurrence of a word can also be reduced by the semantic context preceding that word. A 66-msec difference between the time it takes to isolate low- and high-frequency words in a low-constraint condition was reduced to a 4-msec difference in a high-constraint condition. The theoretical implications for this significant interaction are discussed briefly. © 1984, The psychonomic Society, Inc.. All rights reserved.