The locus of the effects of sentential-semantic context in spoken-word processing

Abstract

Models of word recognition differ with respect to where the effects of sentential-semantic context are to be located. Using a crossmodal priming technique, this research investigated the availability of lexical entries as a function of stimulus information and contextual constraint. To investigate the exact locus of the effects of sentential contexts, probes that were associatively related to contextually appropriate and inappropriate words were presented at various positions before and concurrent with the spoken word. The results show that sentential contexts do not preselect a set of contextually appropriate words before any sensory information about the spoken word is available. Moreover, during lexical access, defined here as the initial contact with lexical entries and their semantic and syntactic properties, both contextually appropriate and inappropriate words are activated. Contextual effects are located after lexical access, at a point in time during word processing where the sensory input by itself is still insufficiently informative to disambiguate between the activated entries. This suggests that sentential-semantic contexts have their effects during the process of selecting one of the activated candidates for recognition.