Phonological representations in prelexical speech processing: Evidence from form-based priming

Five form-based priming experiments examined whether phonological represent ations are used for lexical access during speech recognition. The effects o f final phonological overlap between spoken monosyllabic target words and p receding primes on the recognition of those target words were examined. In Experiment 1, single-word shadowing latencies decreased as the number of ph onemes shared between primes and targets increased. The greatest facilitati on was observed when primes and targets rhymed. In Experiment 2, the number of shared phonemes was controlled. There was an influence of shared rime o n shadowing performance in addition to that due to overlapping segments. Ex periment 3 replicated this finding and showed that there was equivalent fac ilitation with word and nonword primes. Facilitation in shadowing short wor ds was observed in Experiment 4 only when primes and targets rhymed. In Exp eriment 5, listeners responded to the same primes and targets as in Experim ent 4; the items were presented for continuous lexical decision in an undif ferentiated list. Facilitation was observed only when targets immediately f ollowed primes with which they rhymed. Final-overlap facilitation appears t o reflect two processes: a bias based on the perceptual salience of rhyme, and the activation of prelexical phonological representations. (C) 2000 Aca demic Press.