The relationship between planning and execution is more than duration: response to Goldrick & Chu

Abstract

We respond to a commentary by Goldrick & Chu in which they sketch a possible account of our speech error data based on gradient symbol processing and specific assumptions of how planning activations map onto articulatory kinematics. Gradient activation patterns during planning are hypothesised to map directly onto gestural activation duration. Under a more comprehensive perspective on the speech error patterns this hypothesis proves to be overly simplifying and not well suited to render fresh insights into the relationship between planning and execution. Mapping gradient symbol activation patterns onto gestural duration is insufficient when taking into account the distributional properties of the data as well as the the wider range of conditions under which certain kinds of speech errors have been shown to emerge.

Keywords:

• speech errors
• coproductions
• gestures
• articulatory phonology
• mapping planning-articulation
• gradient symbol processing