A Computational Korean Mental Lexicon Model for a Cognitive-Neuro Scientific System

In this paper, we review major issues that have been addressed in Korean word recognition research, and we propose a computational model to explain Korean word recognition. The organization of the chapter is as follows: First, we briefly introduce some experimental results in Korean word recognition and morphological processing research. In this chapter, we will focus on studies regarding word frequency, word length, neighborhood effects, form priming, and morphological processing. Second, a computational model for Korean word recognition will be presented. The computational model was proposed to explain the characteristics of Korean morphological representation and processing. However, this computational model can explain other lexical effects such as word frequency, word length, and form priming effects. Third, the simulation results of the computational model will be shown and discussed. There will be comparison of the simulation results with human data: how well the model simulates Korean word processing and how much the simulated results coincide with that of human processing. We also discuss both the strength and weakness of the computational model.