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"How to milk a coat": The effect of acoustic parameter and semantic sentence context on phonemic categorization and lexical selection

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Date Issued:
1996
Summary:
This experiment investigated the role of sentence meaning in auditory language comprehension. Tokens from a GOAT-COAT speech voicing continuum were embedded in carrier sentences that were biased toward either a "goat" or "coat" interpretation and presented to subjects for a word identification task. The identification function showed a boundary shift in favor of the biased context, and an interaction localized to the ambiguous boundary region. Response times were largest in the boundary region and the interaction between the two factors was localized to the boundary region and the voiced endpoint. There was also a response time advantage for context consistent responses specifically in the boundary region. These results and those of earlier research (Connine, 1987; Connine & Clifton, 1987) are described in terms of interactive activation of potential response categories by acoustic parameter and sentence context.
Title: "How to milk a coat": The effect of acoustic parameter and semantic sentence context on phonemic categorization and lexical selection.
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Name(s): Borsky, Susan
Florida Atlantic University, Degree grantor
Tuller, Betty, Thesis advisor
Type of Resource: text
Genre: Electronic Thesis Or Dissertation
Issuance: monographic
Date Issued: 1996
Publisher: Florida Atlantic University
Place of Publication: Boca Raton, Fla.
Physical Form: application/pdf
Extent: 56 p.
Language(s): English
Summary: This experiment investigated the role of sentence meaning in auditory language comprehension. Tokens from a GOAT-COAT speech voicing continuum were embedded in carrier sentences that were biased toward either a "goat" or "coat" interpretation and presented to subjects for a word identification task. The identification function showed a boundary shift in favor of the biased context, and an interaction localized to the ambiguous boundary region. Response times were largest in the boundary region and the interaction between the two factors was localized to the boundary region and the voiced endpoint. There was also a response time advantage for context consistent responses specifically in the boundary region. These results and those of earlier research (Connine, 1987; Connine & Clifton, 1987) are described in terms of interactive activation of potential response categories by acoustic parameter and sentence context.
Identifier: 15313 (digitool), FADT15313 (IID), fau:12083 (fedora)
Collection: FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection
Note(s): Charles E. Schmidt College of Science
Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 1996.
Subject(s): Speech perception
Comprehension
Semantics
Psycholinguistics
Held by: Florida Atlantic University Libraries
Persistent Link to This Record: http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/15313
Sublocation: Digital Library
Use and Reproduction: Copyright © is held by the author, with permission granted to Florida Atlantic University to digitize, archive and distribute this item for non-profit research and educational purposes. Any reuse of this item in excess of fair use or other copyright exemptions requires permission of the copyright holder.
Use and Reproduction: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
Host Institution: FAU
Is Part of Series: Florida Atlantic University Digital Library Collections.