The time course of lexical access in speech production: A study of picture naming.

Lexical access in object naming involves the activation of a set oflexical candidates, the selection of the appropriate (or target) item, and the phonological encoding of that item. Two views of lexical access in naming are compared. From one view, the 2-stage theory, phonological activation follows selection of the target item and is restricted to that item. From the other view, which is most explicit in activation-spreading theories, all activated lexical candidates are phonologically activated to some extent. A series of experiments is reported in which subjects performed acoustic lexical decision during object naming at different stimulus-onset asynchronies. The experiments show semantic activation of lexical candidates and phonological activation of the target item, but no phonological activation of other semantically activated items. This supports the 2-stage view. More-over, a mathematical model embodying the 2-stage view is fully compatible with the lexical deci-sion data obtained at different stimulus-onset asynchronies. One of a speakers core skills is to lexicalize the concepts intended for expression. Lexicalization proceeds at a rate of two to three words per second in normal spontaneous speech, but doubling this rate is possible and not exceptional. The skill of