What tip-of-the-tongue (TOT) states say about homophone frequency inheritance

Title
What tip-of-the-tongue (TOT) states say about homophone frequency inheritance
Publication Date
2012
Author(s)
Anton-Mendez, Ines
( author )
OrcID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1237-8126
Email: iantonm2@une.edu.au
UNE Id une-id:iantonm2
Schutze, Carson T
Champion, Mary K
Gollan, Tamar H
Type of document
Journal Article
Language
en
Entity Type
Publication
Publisher
Springer New York LLC
Place of publication
United States of America
DOI
10.3758/s13421-012-0189-1
UNE publication id
une:12708
Abstract
The present study uses tip-of-the-tongue (TOT) states as a unique source of evidence to test the hypothesis of lexical access benefits for homophones - that is, whether low-frequency homophones, such as tee, inherit the lexical access benefits of their high-frequency homophonic counterparts, such as tea.We compared retrieval success rates for low-frequency homophones, for matched low-frequency controls, and for high-frequency controls with the combined frequency of the homophone set. In correct retrievals, low frequency homophones behaved according to their specific frequency, not differing from the low-frequency controls. However, retrieval failures revealed a different kind of homophone effect. When retrieval failed for targets with a homophone partner, access difficulties tended to be less profound than for low-frequency controls, ending closer to target retrieval more often than low-frequency controls (at Step 2; in a self-resolved TOT or in a TOT with a strong feeling of knowing), and ending far away from target retrieval less often than low-frequency controls (at Step 1; in a not GOT). These results provide evidence against the notion of shared word-form representations for homophonic targets but leave open a door for a weaker form of homophone effects, possibly arising from feedback activation that influences retrieval only when access is sufficiently slowed (as when retrieval fails).
Link
Citation
Memory and Cognition, 40(5), p. 802-811
ISSN
1532-5946
0090-502X
Start page
802
End page
811

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