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Abstract

Three experiments supported our hypothesis that, when a message to be spoken is syntactically structured, the organizational units in its production are larger than single words. Exp. 1 showed that Ss (N = 12) are able to shadow sentences more accurately than word lists, a difference that is accentuated at higher rates of presentation (1 vs 6 words/sec.). Exp. 2 indicated that Ss (N = 6) who had memorized both sentences and word lists could always speak the sentences more rapidly than the word lists, thereby eliminating the possibility that a perceptual effect determined the outcome of Exp. 1. In Exp. 3, the performance of “close shadowers” (N = 6) who can shadow messages with latencies of approximately 250 msec. was also facilitated by syntactic structure.

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Speech Production: Contribution of Syntactic Structure

Abstract

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References