CONSTRAINT, WORD-FREQUENCY, AND THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LEXICAL PROCESSING LEVELS IN SPOKEN WORD PRODUCTION

Producing a word to express a meaning requires the processes of lexica l selection and phonological encoding. We argue that lexical selection is influenced by contextual constraint and phonological encoding by w ord frequency, and we use these variables to assess the processing rel ations between selection and encoding. In two experiments we examined latencies to name pictures presented within sentences. The sentences v aried in degree of constraint, whereas the target picture-names varied in frequency. In both experiments, targets that followed constraining sentences showed substantially reduced frequency effects. When the ta rgets followed incongruent sentence frames, the frequency effect retur ned. The results offer new support for the predictions of cascade theo ries of word production. (C) 1998 Academic Press.