Name dominance in spoken word recognition is (not) modulated by expectations: evidence from synonyms
Andréa Weber, Alissa Melinger · ExLing Conferences · 2008
Two German eye-tracking experiments tested whether top-down expectations interact with acoustically driven word-recognition processes. Competitor objects with two synonymous names were paired with target objects whose names shared word onsets with either the dominant or the non-dominant name of the competitor. Non-dominant names of competitor objects were either introduced before the test session or not. Eye movements were monitored while participants heard instructions to click on target objects. Results demonstrate that both dominant and non-dominant competitor names were considered for recognition, regardless of top-down expectations, though dominant names were always activated more strongly.