Serial control of phonology in speech production: A hierarchical model

A dynamic oscillator-bused model of the sequencing of phonemes in speech pr oduction (OSCAR) is described. An analysis of phoneme movement errors (anti cipations, perseverations, and exchanges) from a large naturalistic speech error corpus provides a new set of data suitable for quantitative modeling and is used to derive a set of constraints that any speech-production model must address. The new computational model is shown to account for error ty pe proportions, movement error distance gradients, the syllable-position ef fect, and phonological similarity effects. The model provides an alternativ e to frame-based accounts, serial buffer accounts, and associative chaining theories of serial order processing in speech. (C) 2000 Academic Press.