VOWEL MUTABILITY AND LEXICAL SELECTION IN ENGLISH - EVIDENCE FROM A WORD RECONSTRUCTION TASK

This study introduces a new paradigm for investigating lexical process ing. First, an analysis of data from a series of word-spotting experim ents is presented suggesting that listeners treat vowels as more mutab le than consonants in auditory word recognition in English. In order t o assess this hypothesis, a word reconstruction task was devised in wh ich Listeners were required to turn word-like nonwords into words by a dapting the identity of either one vowel or one consonant. Listeners m odified vowel identity more readily than consonant identity. Furthermo re, incorrect responses more often involved a vowel change than a cons onant change. These findings are compatible with the proposal that Eng lish listeners are equipped to deal with vowel variability by assuming that vowel identity is comparatively underdefined. The results are di scussed in the light of theoretical accounts of speech processing.