13th Speech in Noise Workshop, 20-21 January 2022, Virtual Conference 13th Speech in Noise Workshop, 20-21 January 2022, Virtual Conference

P74 Effect of semantically related and unrelated competing message on sentence production in neuro-typical adults

Abhishek Budiguppe Panchakshari
Nitte Institute of Speech and Hearing, Mangalore Karnataka, India

(a) Presenting

Lexical access is described as the retrieval of the most appropriate word from the lexicon. During this process, a set of words would compete for the process of selection/activation. The target word would be retrieved from the lexicon amidst this competition and this activation is generally based on the context. Few proponents in this direction propose that the competitor word may facilitate word activation (facilitation), while few other researchers postulate that these competitor words may impede the process of lexical activation (inhibition). These two mechanisms of lexical retrieval are tested even at the level of sentence production (using priming and the picture-word interference — PWI — paradigm). In the PWI paradigm, the competitor word is presented before the target word. This competitor word can be either semantically related or unrelated to the target. The current study used a paradigm similar to PWI but the basic difference was that the precursor was also presented in auditory mode. The reaction time and accuracy would be analyzed separately for the target words preceded by semantically related and unrelated words, based on which inference on facilitation and inhibition is deduced. The current study aimed at examining the mechanism of lexical retrieval at the level of sentence production. Semantically related and unrelated sentences acted as competitors to these sentences. The study was conducted in Kannada, a south Indian language. A total of 30 neurologically healthy young adults in the age range of 30-45 years served as participants. The stimulus was derived from the Kannada action naming test. The task required the participants to name the stimulus by using a noun and verb (example: "Two men are shaking hands"). Sixty such sentences were used in the current study. Each of these sentences were preceded by a precursor. Fifteen sentences had semantically related nouns as precursors, 15 sentences had semantically related verbs as precursors while 30 sentences had an unrelated noun and verb as precursors. The duration between the precursor and target was 500 milliseconds. The inter-stimulus duration between two stimuli was 500 milliseconds. Vocal reaction time and accuracy scores were the dependent variables. The vocal reaction time and accuracy scores were better for target sentences preceded by semantically related verbs followed by semantically related nouns. The participants experienced more difficulty in naming sentences with unrelated nouns and verbs. The results signify the role of semantically related competing messages on sentence production. The results will be discussed in details.

Last modified 2022-01-24 16:11:02