Phonological neighborhood density and word retrieval - An ERP study
During the process of word retrieval, words a re elicited from the mental lexicon. According to the Cohort Model, word recognition occurs when only one candidate in the cohort of possible words remains. Words are recognized via successive reductions in the number of possible word candidates as each phoneme is perceived. Each word has a particular number of neighbors, whereas a word can have dense or sparse neighborhood density (ND) depending on the number of words that sound similar to a target word. Words with dense neighborhooods are defined less accurately than words with sparse neighborhoods. Our study aimed to investigate the influence of neighborhood density in the process of spoken word and non-word retrieval using the ERP technique and expecting the N400 effect.
Whether the existing adjunct attachment hypothesis and models apply to Chinese English learners is unknown and it needs further research.This study chooses 49 college students randomly to do the ambiguous sentences processed by using Tobii T-120.The research shows the eye movement traces and oral report results,and both illustrate that Chinese students have NP1 preference,which supports the linguistic tuning hypothesis.