Exploring the effects of phonetic overlap and background noise on incremental processing in children

In everyday conversation, individuals actively process speech in order to comprehend and respond in real-time. As a word unfolds, listeners activate possible lexical candidates and actively determine the target word as soon as possible. This process requires knowledge of one's native spoken language and the ability to recognize individual phonemes. Phonetic overlap between the target and candidate words can influence the speed of lexical access. For example, phonological onset (e.g., candy), but not rhyming words (e.g., sandal), can yield lexical competition with target words (e.g., candle). When the auditory input is spectrally degraded, however, the effect is different: rhyme words have greater lexical competition with target words. The purpose of the present study is to test the extent to which rhyme words compete with target words in the present of background noise. In a visual world paradigm, the present study examines the time course of spoken word recognition when target words (e.g., candle) are contrasted with full (e.g., sandal) and offset (e.g., poodle) rhymes in 5-to-7-year-olds. Target words are presented in both quiet and in steady-state speech-shaped noise at 0 dB SNR. Preliminary data suggest that rhyming overlap does not impact processing in quiet but may show differences in noise.