The Influence of Phonological Similarity Neighborhoods on Speech Production

The influence of phonological similarity neighborhoods on the speed and accuracy of speech production was investigated with speech-error elicitation and picture-naming tasks. The results from 2 speech-error elicitation techniques—the spoonerisms of laboratory induced predisposition technique (B. J. Baars. 1992 ; B. J. Baars & M. T. Motley, 1974 ; M. T. Motley & B. J. Baars, 1976 ) and tongue twisters—showed that more errors were elicited for words with few similar sounding words (i.e., a sparse neighborhood) than for words with many similar sounding words (i.e., a dense neighborhood). The results from 3 picture-naming tasks showed that words with sparse neighborhoods were also named more slowly than words with dense neighborhoods. These findings demonstrate that multiple word forms are activated simultaneously and influence the speed and accuracy of speech production. The implications of these findings for current models of speech production are discussed.