Constraint, word frequency, and the relationship between lexical processing levels in spoken word production

Producing a word to express a meaning requires the processes of lexical selection and phonological encoding. We argue that lexical selection is influenced by contextual constraint and phonological encoding by word frequency, and we use these variables to assess the processing relations between selection and encoding. In two experiments we examined latencies to name pictures presented within sentences. The sentences varied in degree of constraint, whereas the target picture-names varied in frequency. In both experiments, targets that followed constraining sentences showed substantially reduced frequency effects. When the targets followed incongruent sentence frames, the frequency effect returned. The results offer new support for the predictions of cascade theories of word production. (C) 1998 Academic Press.