The neighbourhood frequency effect in naming is influenced by substituted-letter confusability and lexical skills

Abstract

The objective is to investigate lexical competition processes in visual word recognition with the naming task, according to the individual lexical skills of young adults. To do so, we examined the extent to which the orthographic neighbourhood frequency effect was influenced by the confusability of the substituted letter distinguishing the stimulus word from its higher-frequency orthographic neighbour. Individual lexical skills of 93 students were assessed by spelling, reading and vocabulary tests for the French language. GLMM analyses showed an inhibitory effect of orthographic neighbourhood frequency on naming times, as well as effects of reading and vocabulary skills on naming times and error rates. More interestingly, the inhibitory orthographic neighbourhood frequency effect on naming times was influenced by both the confusability of the substituted letter and the level of the individual’s reading and vocabulary skills. These results are interpreted within the theoretical framework of interactive activation and the lexical quality hypothesis.