Abstract
Subjects heard successive fragments of words both in and out of context, and after each fragment they wrote down the word they thought they were hearing. Responses were analyzed for word frequency, length, and compatibility with both contextual constraints and the sensory input. These responses, pooled across subjects, enabled us to evaluate a number of claims concerning the use of top-down and bottom-up information in the process of word recognition. The analyses show that, in the process of recognizing a spoken word, subjects initially produce a large number of responses compatible with the sensory input. This set diminishes in size as more of the word is presented. The rate at which responses drop out of the initial set differs, depending on whether words are heard in isolation or in context. These properties of the elicited responses are compatible with claims made by the cohort model for the integration of top-down and bottom-up information in the process of recognizing a spoken word.
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Tyler, L.K. The structure of the initial cohort: Evidence from gating. Perception & Psychophysics 36, 417–427 (1984). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03207496
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03207496