WHY THE ‘PRESIDENT’ DOES NOT EXCITE THE ‘PRESS’: THE LIMITS OF SPURIOUS LEXICAL ACTIVATION IN L2 LISTENING

Mirjam Broersma
Radboud University Nijmegen

ID 1525
[full paper]

Two Cross-Modal Priming experiments assessed lexical activation of unintended words for nonnative (Dutch) and English native listeners. Stimuli mismatched words in final voicing, which in earlier studies caused spurious lexical activation for Dutch listeners. The stimuli were embedded in or cut out of a carrier (PRESident). The presence of a longer lexical competitor in the signal or as a possible continuation of it prevented spurious lexical activation of mismatching words (press).