Authors: Knobel, Mark¹; Finkbeiner, Matthew²; Caramazza, Alfonso³

Source: Cognitive Neuropsychology, Volume 25, Number 2, September 2007 , pp. 256-286(31)

Publisher: Psychology Press, part of the Taylor & Francis Group

Abstract:

The effect of lexical frequency on language-processing tasks is exceptionally reliable. For example, pictures with higher frequency names are named faster and more accurately than those with lower frequency names. Experiments with normal participants and patients strongly suggest that this production effect arises at the level of lexical access. Further work has suggested that within lexical access this effect arises at the level of lexical representations. Here we present patient E.C. who shows an effect of lexical frequency on his nonword error rate. The best explanation of his performance is that there is an additional locus of frequency at the interface of lexical and segmental representational levels. We confirm this hypothesis by showing that only computational models with frequency at this new locus can produce a similar error pattern to that of patient E.C. Finally, in an analysis of a large group of Italian patients, we show that there exist patients who replicate E.C.'s pattern of results and others who show the complementary pattern of frequency effects on semantic error rates. Our results combined with previous findings suggest that frequency plays a role throughout the process of lexical access.

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02643290701502425

Affiliations: 1: Cognitive Neuropsychology Laboratory, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA 2: Macquarie Centre for Cognitive Science, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia 3: Cognitive Neuropsychology Laboratory, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA,Center for Mind/Brain Sciences, University of Trento, Trento, Italy

Publication date: 2007-09-01

More about this publication?

• Editorial Board
• Information for Authors
• Subscribe to this Title
• ingentaconnect is not responsible for the content or availability of external websites

Related content

• In this: publication
• By this: publisher
• In this Subject: Anatomy & Physiology
• By this author: Knobel, Mark ;  Finkbeiner, Matthew ;  Caramazza, Alfonso

Website © Publishing Technology. Article copyright remains with the publisher, society or author(s) as specified within the article.

• Terms and conditions
• Privacy policy
• Information for advertisers