Recently,
Zhang Qingfang and her research group of the Department of Psychology, Renmin
University of China (RUC) published an article entitled “Facilitation effect of
token syllable frequency in Chinese spoken word production” on Psychonomic
Bulletin & Review, a psychological journal with 4.7 impact factor.
Abstract
Syllable
frequency effects in spoken word production have been interpreted as evidence
that speakers store syllable-sized motor programmes for phonetic encoding in
alphabetic languages such as English or Dutch. However, the cognitive mechanism
underlying the syllable frequency effect in Chinese spoken word production
remains unknown. To investigate the locus of the syllable frequency effect in
spoken Chinese, this study used a picture–word interference (PWI) task in which
participants were asked to name the picture while ignoring the distractor word.
The design included two variables: the syllable frequency of the target words
(high vs. low) and the phonological relationships between distractor and target
words (shared atonic syllable or not; related vs. unrelated). We manipulated
mixed token and type syllable frequency in Experiment 1, and token syllable
frequency but controlled type syllable frequency in Experiment 2. The results
showed a facilitation effect of mixed syllable frequency and a similar
facilitation effect of token syllable frequency. Importantly, the syllable
frequency effect was found to be independent of the phonological facilitation
effect. These results suggest that token syllable frequency played a dominant
role in the observed facilitation effect, providing evidence that the syllable
frequency effect arises in the phonetic encoding of Chinese spoken word
production.
For more details, please refer to https://link.springer.com/article/10.3758/s13423-023-02374-3.