Investigating the effects of phonological neighbors on word retrieval and phonetic variation in word naming and picture naming paradigms.

Phonological neighbors have been shown to affect word processing. Prior work has shown that when a word with an initial voiceless stop has a contrasting initial voiced stop neighbor, Voice Onset Times (VOTs) are longer. Higher phonological neighborhood density (PND) has also been shown to facilitate word retrieval latency, and be associated with longer VOTs. However, these effects have rarely been investigated with picture naming, which is thought to be a more semantically driven task. The current study examined the effects of phonological neighbors on word retrieval times and phonetic variation, and how these effects differed in word naming and picture naming paradigms. Results showed that PND was positively correlated with longer VOT in both paradigms. Furthermore, the effect of initial stop neighbors on VOTs was only significant in word naming. These results highlight the influence of phonological neighbors on word production in different paradigms, support interactive models of word production, and suggest that hyper-articulation in speech does not solely depend on communicative context.