Repeated attempts, phonetic errors, and syllabifications in a case study:Evidence of impaired transfer from phonology to articulatory planning

Figures & data

Figure 1. A schematic model of word production

Figure 2. CS’s CT scan

Table 1. CS’s performance in semantic tasks, input tasks, and STM. All tasks, except for the probe task, are from PALPA

	N corr	N stim	% correct
Semantics
Spoken Word-Picture Matching	40	40	100
Written Word-Picture Matching	40	40	100
Synonyms – Auditory	30	30	100
Synonyms – Written	30	30	100
Word semantic association
high imageability	13	15	86.7
low imageability	11	15	73.3
Lexical input
Lex decision spoken	79	80	98.8
Lex decision written	60	60	100
Sentence comprehension
Auditory	35	36	97.2
Written	33	36	91.7
Locative relationships
Auditory	24	24	100
Written	24	24	100
Phonological Input
Same/different nonwords	66	72	91.7
Same/different words	59	72	81.9
Written word selection: minimal pairs	68	72	94.4
Picture word selection: minimal pairs	35	40	87.5
STM
Digit span (Repetition)	5
Digit span (Matching)	7
Probe -rhyme span	4.1
Probe -semantic categories span	5.7

Table 2. CS’s errors in repetition, reading and naming. For naming only initial full responses were scored. Percentages are based on the number of word stimuli

	Word Repetition		Non-Word Repetition		Reading		Naming		Total
	N	%	N	%	N	%	N	%	N	%
Stimuli	2339		202		1620		289		4450
Correct	1847	79	46	22.8	1204	74.3	222	76.8	3319	74.6
Pure Nonlexical Errors	162	33.1	43	27.6	241	57.9	56	83.6	504	44.6
Pure Lexical Errors	110	22.4	24	15.4	35	8.4	11	16.4	181	16
Phonological	87	17.8	24	15.4	34	8.2	8	11.9	154	13.6
Morphological	19	3.9	0	0	1	0.2	0	0	20	1.8
Visual	–		–		–		3	4.5	3	0.3
Repeated attempts	218	44.5	89	57.1	140	33.7	–	–	446	39.4
Outcome: Correct	149	30.4	18	11.5	100	24	–	–	244	21.6
Outcome: Lexical Error	13	2.7	11	7.1	4	1	–	–	27	2.4
Outcome: Nonlexical Error	56	11.4	60	38.5	36	8.7	–	–	151	13.4
Total Errors	490	20.9	156	77.2	416	25.7	67	23.2	1131	25.4

Table 3. Proportion of different kinds of phoneme errors across tasks. Note that the number of non-lexical errors is higher in this analysis because a non-lexical error may contain more than one phonemic error (e.g., two different phoneme substitutions or a substitution plus a deletion). Percentages are based on the total number of individual phoneme errors

Type of individual non-lexical error	Word Repetition		Non-Word Repetition		Read		Naming		Total
	N	%	N	%	N	%	N	%	N	%
Substitution	154	66.4	78	67.2	240	72.5	42	64.6	514	69.1
Consonant	117	76.0	67	85.9	151	62.9	21	50.0	356	69.3
Vowel	37	24.0	11	14.1	89	37.1	21	50.0	158	30.7
Deletion	26	11.2	24	20.7	16	4.8	4	6.2	70	9.4
Consonant	25	96.2	18	75.0	16	100.0	4	100.0	63	90.0
Vowel	1	3.8	6	25.0	0	0.0	0	0.0	7	10.0
Insertion	49	21.1	13	11.2	72	21.8	18	27.7	152	20.4
Consonant	33	67.3	10	76.9	33	45.8	4	22.2	80	52.6
Vowel	16	32.7	3	23.1	39	54.2	14	77.8	72	47.4
Movement	3	1.3	1	0.9	3	0.9	1	1.5	8	1.1
Consonant	2		1		3		1		7
Vowel	1		0		0		0		1
Total	232		116		331		65		744

Table 4. Number of repeated attempts according to type of initial response and outcome (word repetition and reading collapsed). Incomplete responses can either start correct and build up the target from smaller units or start incorrect. Percentages are based, initially, on the total number of word stimuli (column 3) and then on the number of responses of each type (columns 5 and 7)

			FINAL OUTCOME
INITIAL RESPONSE			CORRECT		INCORRECT
	N	% out of stimuli	N	%	N	%
Wrong, but complete	106	2.7	63	59.4	43	40.6
Incomplete	252	6.4	186	73.8	66	26.2
starts correct	137	3.5	101	73.7	36	26.3
starts wrong	115	2.9	85	73.9	30	26.1
Total	358	9	249	69.6	109	30.4

Table 5. Errors by word length in number of phonemes: a) % errors over number of target words: b) % of repeated attempts (RAs) over number of target words; c) percentage of individual phoneme errors over number of target phonemes. Indiv Err = Individual phonological errors. Percentages are based on the total number of word stimuli in each length category and then on the total number of individual phonemes in the stimuli

	Word Repetition			NW repetition			Word Reading			Naming
a) Word Errors	N words	N errors	% Errors	N words	N errors	% Errors	N words	N errors	% Errors	N words	N errors	% Errorsr
Short (3–5)	751	127	16.9	35	17	48.6	839	167	19.9	183	30	16.4
Medium (6–7)	703	132	18.8	38	28	73.7	536	157	29.3	73	21	28.8
Long (8–9)	590	141	23.9	70	57	81.4	214	86	40.2	26	13	50
Very long >10	295	88	29.8	59	54	91.5	31	7	22.6	7	3	42.9
Gradient			4.3			14.3			0.9			8.8
b) RAs	N words	N RA	% RA	N words	N RA	% RA	N words	N RA	% RA
Short (3–5)	751	28	3.7	35	10	28.6	839	57	6.8
Medium (6–7)	703	54	7.7	38	11	28.9	536	58	10.8
Long (8–9)	590	83	14.1	70	35	50.0	214	20	9.3
Very long >10	295	57	19.3	59	33	55.9	31	2	6.5
Gradient			5.2			9.1			−0.1
c)Indiv Phoneme Errors	N phonemes	N indiv Error	% Errors	N phonemes	N indiv Error	% Errors	N phonemes	N indiv Error	% Errors	N phonemes	N indiv Error	% Errors
Short (3–5)	3380	55	1.6	158	5	3.2	3776	106	2.8	824	28	3.4
Medium (6–7)	4570	63	1.4	247	11	4.5	3484	119	3.4	475	20	4.2
Long (8–9)	5074	55	1.1	602	14	2.3	1840	79	4.3	224	17	7.6
Very long >10	3039	29	1.0	608	13	2.1	319	9	2.8	72	3	4.2

Table 6. Number of errors in different frequency categories. Percentages are based on the number of stimulus words in each category. RA=repeatedattempts

	Word Repetition			Word Reading			Naming
Word errors	N words	N errors	% Errors	N words	N errors	% Errors	N words	N errors	% Errors
High Frequency	301	39	13	260	36	14	33	2	6
Medium Frequency	485	90	19	301	75	25	50	6	12
Low Frequency	1558	357	23	1059	305	29	206	59	29
Gradient			10			15			23
RAs	N words	N RA	% RA	N words	N RA	% RA
High Frequency	301	17	6	260	15	6
Medium Frequency	485	41	8	301	31	10
Low Frequency	1558	164	11	1059	91	9
Gradient			5			3
Individual phoneme errors	N phonemes	N indiv Error	% Errors	N phonemes	N indiv Error	% Errors	N phonemes	N indiv Error	% Errors
High Frequency	1886	42	2.2	1401	43	3.1	168	2	1.2
Medium Frequency	3433	98	2.9	1749	85	4.9	253	10	4.0
Low Frequency	10,744	402	3.7	6269	343	5.5	1174	67	5.7
Gradient			1.5			2.4			4.5

Figure 3. Percentage of phonemes produced correctly as a function of serial position in the target and target length

Table 7. Deletion and insertion errors which simplify or complicate syllable structure. N err = Number of errors

SIMPLIFICATIONS			COMPLICATIONS
Type of error	Result	N err	Type of error	Result	N err
Consonant Deletions			Consonant Insertions
e.g., rɛplɪkə>rɛtɪkɑː	eliminate onset complexity	27	e.g., loɪəltɛ>loɪəltrɪ	create complex onset	24
e.g., ʃʌvəl>ʃvə	eliminate coda	6	e.g., lædə>lædəl	create coda	8
e.g., əflɪkt>əfli:k	decrease coda complexity	11	e.g., tu:θbrʌʃ>tu:θbrʌkʃ	increase coda complexity	18
Vowel Insertions			Vowel Deletions
e.g., ɪntəvju>ɪntəvəju:	eliminate onset complexity	66	e.g., frətnɛtɪ> rɛtɛ:ntɪ	create coda	1
Consonant Insertions			Vowel Insertions
e.g., stəʊɪk>stʊɪrɪk	Decrease peak complexity eliminate hiatus	14	e.g., stɛlθɪ>stɛlθaɪ	increase peak complexity/creates hiatus	11
Total		124	Total		62

Table 8. Number and percentages of errors on different phonemes across production tasks (word repetition, word reading, and picture naming). stim = stimuli; sub = substitution errors; Most common = most common substitution error for a given phoneme. Percentages are based on the total number of individual phonemes in the stimuli

Phoneme		N stim	N sub	% sub	Most common		N	Phoneme		N stim	N sub		% sub	Most common	N
Nasals
	m	846	7	0.83	m > n		5
	n	1823	11	0.60	n > l		8
	ŋ	200	1	0.50
		2869	19	0.64
Stops								Stops
unvoiced	p	789	12	1.52	p > f		8	voiced	b	697	36		5.16	b > v	9
	t	1706	29	1.70	t >tʃ		11		d	918	21		2.29	d >ʤ	9
	k	1188	22	1.85	k >t		17		g	308	10		3.25	g > d	9
		3683	63	1.69						1923	67		3.57
Fricatives								Fricatives
unvoiced	f	689	13	1.89	f > s		3	voiced	v	306	15		4.90	v > b	11
	s	1358	25	1.84	s >ʃ		12		z	247	15		6.07	z > s	5
	θ	119	3	2.52	θ > t		3		ð	20	2		10.00	ð > d/z	2
		2166	41	2.08						573	32		6.99
Palatalized Fricatives								Palatalized Fricatives
unvoiced	ʃ	452	23	5.09		ʃ>tʃ	12	voiced	ʒ	23	2		8.70	3>ʤ/z
Affricates								Affricates
	ʧ	146	9	6.16		tʃ>k/t	3		ʤ	243	7	2.88		ʤ> d		3
		598	32	5.63						266	9	5.79
Liquids
	r	1411	17	1.20		r>10	10
	l	1947	12	0.62		l>r	5
		3358	29	0.91
Glides
	j	285	6	2.11		j > l	4
	w	225	2	0.89		w > m/r	2
		510	8	1.50

Table 9. Number of errors which change phonological features. Percentages are based on the number of phonemes from target stimuli. Fric = Fricative; Alv. = Alveolar; Pal = Palatalized

SIMPLIFICATIONS						COMPLICATIONS
		e.g.,	N errors	N stimuli	% stimuli			e.g.,	N errors	N stimuli	% stimuli	Simp vs Comp (χ^2 p-value)
MANNER						MANNER						χ^2 p
Fricatives > Stops		f > t/p;v > b/d; s/ʃ > t/p;θ > t	31	3214	0.96	Stops > Fricatives		p > f;b > v;d > ð;t > s;t > θ	29	5606	0.52
Affricates > Stops		ʧ > k; ʧ > t; ʤ > g; ʤ > d	10	389	2.57	Stops > Affricates		b/d > ʤ;t > ʧ	28	5606	0.50
Total			41	3603	1.14	Total			57	5606	1.02	n.s.
Affricates > Fricatives	onset	ʧ > ʃ; ʤ > ʒ;	5	389	1.29	Fricative > Affricates		ʃ > ʧ; z > ʤ; s > ʤ	17	8345	0.20
							onset		12
							coda		5
PLACE						PLACE
Velars>Dental/Bilabial		k > t; g > d	31	1496	2.07	Dental/Bilabial>Velars		t > k;d > g	21	4110	0.51	<.001
De-palatalizations						Palatalizations
Affricates >Stops		ʧ > k; ʧ > t; ʤ > g; ʤ > d	10	389	2.57	Stops > Affricates		b/d > ʤ;t > ʧ	28	5606	0.50
Affricates> Alv. Fric		ʧ > f; ʤ > v;ʧ > s; ʤ > z	2	389	0.51	Alveolar Fric>Affricates		f > ʧ; v > ʤ; s > ʧ; z > ʤ	17	2739	0.62
Pal.Fric>Alveolar Fric		ʃ > s; ʒ > z; ʃ > θ	9	475	1.89	Alveolar Fric> Pal. Fric		s > ʃ > s; z > ʒ	12	2739	0.44
Total			21	864	2.43	Total			57	8345	0.68	<.001
VOICING						VOICING
devoicing		b > p;d > t; g > k; v > f; z > s;ʒ > ʃ; ʤ > ʧ	22	3005	0.73	add voicing		p > b;t > d; k > g; f > v; s > z; ʃ > ʒ; ʤ > ʧ	18	6593	0.27	0.001
	onset		16				onset		6
	coda		6				coda		12
r > l			10						8