OPEN WIDE AND SAY BLAH ATTENTIONAL DYNAMICS OF DELAYED NAMING

In a well-known study, Balota and Chumbley (1985) used a delayed namin g task to assess post-perceptual word frequency effects. They observed frequency effects after considerable delays, suggesting that frequenc y sensitivity characterizes not only the perceptual stage, but also po st-access stages. The present investigation examined delayed naming in a dual-task. Using delays after perception and a constant response (' 'blah'') for all catch trials, we attained relatively pure indices of the mental workloads incurred by low-and high-frequency words. Across experiments, reliable frequency effects occurred in both word-naming a nd catch trials. The frequency effects can be modified by altering omn ibus task difficulty, or by adding phonologically confusable memory lo ads. The results suggest that frequency effects in delayed naming (and their occasional absence in prior studies) partly reflect attentional differences. We describe a resonance framework in which word percepti on, rehearsal, and production all rely on stable feedback loops among knowledge structures. Attention is required both to create and to main tain feedback loops; each word's level of attention demand is predicte d by its frequency of previous occurrence. (C) 1997 Academic Press.