How to meet the neighbors: Modality effects on phonological generalization

Abstract

Long-term auditory priming of words from dense neighborhoods has been posited as a learning mechanism that affects change in the phonological structure of children's lexical representations. An apparent confound associated with the modality of priming responsible for structural change has been introduced in the literature, which challenges this proposal. Thus, our purpose was to evaluate prime modality in the treatment of children with phonological delay. Nine children were assigned to auditory–visual, auditory, or visual priming of words from dense neighborhoods prior to the treatment of production as the independent variable. The dependent variable was phonological generalization. Results showed that auditory priming (with or without visual input) promoted greater generalization on an order of magnitude of 3:1. Findings support the theoretical significance of auditory priming for phonological learning and demonstrate the applied utility of priming in clinical treatment.

• lexical neighborhoods
• phonological delay
• priming

Acknowledgements

The authors congratulate and thank Tom Powell, our baby brother and uncle, respectively, in the academic lineage, for his dedicated commitment to the journal. Tom continues to explore and excite readers with his research contributions and his work on phonological treatment is a model for academicians and students alike. We also thank Dan Dinnsen for input on the manuscript and members of the Learnability Project for their assistance with the data. Paul and Alice Sharp of Sharp Designs & Illustrations, Inc. created the illustrations. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.