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The first two experiments reported were concerned with the fact and growth of visual and acoustic representations of simple words in the Mental Lexicon. Using a Learning paradigm it was established that some form of visual and acoustic representations are formed within three exposures and that these forms of a word are also a basis for lexical organization. Five experiments, employing different techniques, were aimed at testing the psychological reality of the morphemic structure of prefixed words. It was established that the morphemic structure of some of these words is represented; that the identity of some prefixes is represented; and that some non-specific knowledge concerning the relationship between orthographic and prefix structure is also represented. Finally, the spelling errors of 11 year old children were analysed. This analysis revealed that acoustic, visual (more properly graphemic), and morphemic information, as well as some knowledge of phonotactic rules and statistical regularities, are represented in the Internal Lexicon. It is concluded that the contents of the Internal lexicon are both redundant and heterogeneous. The first two experiments reported were concerned with the fact and growth of visual and acoustic representations of simple words in the Mental Lexicon. Using a Learning paradigm it was established that some form of visual and acoustic representations are formed within three exposures and that these forms of a word are also a basis for lexical organization. Five experiments, employing different techniques, were aimed at testing the psychological reality of the morphemic structure of prefixed words. It was established that the morphemic structure of some of these words is represented; that the identity of some prefixes is represented; and that some non-specific knowledge concerning the relationship between orthographic and prefix structure is also represented. Finally, the spelling errors of 11 year old children were analysed. This analysis revealed that acoustic, visual (more properly graphemic), and morphemic information, as well as some knowledge of phonotactic rules and statistical regularities, are represented in the Internal Lexicon. It is concluded that the contents of the Internal lexicon are both redundant and heterogeneous.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Nevada, Reno, 2005. / "May 2005." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 29-33). Online version available on the World Wide Web.

The question of whether words can be identified without spatial attention has been a topic of considerable interest over the last five and a half decades, but the literature has yielded mixed conclusions. Some studies show substantial effects of distractor words which are argued to appear outside of spatial attention, whereas a small number of other studies show no evidence of such effects. I argue that at least some of the discrepant results can be understood in terms of failures to optimally focus attention at the cued location. The present experiments manipulated the proportion of valid trials to encourage distributed (Experiments 1 and 3) or focused (Experiments 2 and 4) spatial attention. Participants read aloud a target word, and the impact of a simultaneously presented distractor word was assessed. Semantic and repetition distractor effects were present when conditions promoted distributed spatial attention, but distractor effects were absent when conditions promoted focused spatial attention. These data are consistent with the proposal that (1) the allocation of spatial attention across displays is strongly context-dependent and (2) spatial attention is a necessary preliminary to lexical/semantic processing.

The question of whether words can be identified without spatial attention has been a topic of considerable interest over the last five and a half decades, but the literature has yielded mixed conclusions. Some studies show substantial effects of distractor words which are argued to appear outside of spatial attention, whereas a small number of other studies show no evidence of such effects. I argue that at least some of the discrepant results can be understood in terms of failures to optimally focus attention at the cued location. The present experiments manipulated the proportion of valid trials to encourage distributed (Experiments 1 and 3) or focused (Experiments 2 and 4) spatial attention. Participants read aloud a target word, and the impact of a simultaneously presented distractor word was assessed. Semantic and repetition distractor effects were present when conditions promoted distributed spatial attention, but distractor effects were absent when conditions promoted focused spatial attention. These data are consistent with the proposal that (1) the allocation of spatial attention across displays is strongly context-dependent and (2) spatial attention is a necessary preliminary to lexical/semantic processing.

Thesis (M.A.)--West Virginia University, 2001. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains vi, 120 p. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 101-108).

Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Auburn University,2006. / Abstract. Vita. Includes bibliographic references (p.54-58).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--UCLA, 2009. / Vita. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 99-107).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2002. / Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 122-127). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.

In older children and adults, words are stored in the mental lexicon in an organized manner and processed in a systematic manner on the basis of their phonological structures. The processing of novel words is therefore more efficient. Young children may process a novel word in a holistic manner, and the words are not stored phonemically distinct with one another in the mental lexicon. Priming is a method often used in spoken word recognition studies. The effects of phonological primes on word learning would reflect the organization of mental lexicon in young children. At the same time, research has shown that there is a positive correlation between phonological short-term memory (STM) and word learning. But the mechanism of how both phonological STM and mental lexicon are involved in word learning is not clear. Forty-two five- to seven-years-old children with a mean age of 6;06 (SD = 0;10) participated in a spoken word learning task. They were presented with names of 18 novel cartoon characters in nine word learning blocks and the names were novel disyllables that are consistent with the phonotactics of Cantonese. In each block, children were exposed to two novel words along with two real words as primes, with the primes phonologically similar to one novel word (“PHONOLOGICAL” condition) but not with the other one (“UNRELATED” condition). They heard each novel word twice and the primes three times. These participants also took part in nonword repetition tasks and a serial order construction task as measures of the phonological STM. A significantly positive effect of phonological priming was observed in the cartoon character naming but not in the form identification and the referent identification. Further analysis of the naming results showed that only the same-onset-and-tone primes produced a significant priming effect. Among the various short-term memory measures, only nonword repetition of pseudosyllables (syllable score) was significantly and positively correlated with the cartoon character naming score after controlling for age. The findings of the present study presented some evidence that even five-year-old Cantonese-speaking children have already organized the lexical representations in neighbourhoods so that phonological primes could exert facilitatory effects on their spoken word learning. Even this young group of children was able to process novel words in a segmental manner. But there could still be some subtle differences between the younger and older children. A word learning model which integrates the involvement of phonological STM and mental lexicon could help to explain how these two memory components contribute to word learning and the word learning differences between the younger and older children. The preliminary findings of this study provided some evidence in children’s sensitivity to the phonological structures of novel spoken words. Cantonese-speaking children, similar to English-speaking ones, are sensitive to the phonological structures of novel words and phonological primes facilitate their spoken word learning. The results of this study further suggest long-term memory and phonological short-term memory are involved at the initial stage of word learning. However, the mechanism of interactions needs to be further investigated. / published_or_final_version / Speech and Hearing Sciences / Master / Master of Philosophy