The present study delves into the structure and lexical organization of L1 and L2 mental lexicons. Indirect access to the mental lexicon is provided by semantic fluency tasks, which inform researchers about how the words are organized in the mental lexicon and retrieved when necessary. Here, two groups of participants were asked to retrieve as many words of the category fruits and vegetables as possible in two minutes. The first group is made up of native speakers of Spanish who responded in Spanish L1, whereas the second group is made up of native speakers of Greek who are learning Spanish foreign language (SFL) who responded first in Spanish FL and later in Greek L1. The three sets of responses were scrutinized and compared for similarities and differences. Results point to a retrieval mechanism based on L1-mediated access for SFL learners and slightly different structures of the mental lexicon. Even in very advanced learners, lexical organization and word retrieval in the FL resembles L1 organization.

Previous research has documented conflicting findings regarding the effect of word frequency on spelling in older adults. The current study examines spelling in Hebrew, in which it is easier to define the type of likely misspellings in each word. Younger and older Hebrew speakers spelled 120 single words that differed in word and letter frequency. Results show that all participants made more phonological substitutions of target letters on low-frequency words and on words with low-frequency letters. Yet, younger adults had a lower percentage of correct responses than did older adults, especially on low-frequency words. Vocabulary knowledge eliminated this age effect. We suggest that aging leads to greater reliance on full lexical retrieval of spelling instead of on sublexical phoneme-to-grapheme processing, due to years of exposure to written language, increase in vocabulary, and consolidation of orthographic representations.

The aim of the present study was to investigate whether the recognition speed of Finnish nominal base forms varies as a function of their paradigmatic complexity (stem allomorphy) or productivity status. Nikolaev et al. (2014) showed that words with greater stem allomorphy from an unproductive inflectional class are recognized faster than words with lower stem allomorphy from a productive inflectional class. Productivity of an inflectional paradigm correlates with the number of stem allomorphs in languages like Finnish in that unproductive inflectional classes tend to have higher stem allomorphy. We wanted to distinguish which of these two characteristics provides the benefit to speed of recognition found by Nikolaev et al. (2014). The current study involved a lexical decision task comparing three categories of words: unproductive with three or more stem allomorphs, unproductive with two stem allomorphs, and productive with two stem allomorphs. We observed a facilitation effect for word recognition only for unproductive words with three or more stem allomorphs, but not for unproductive words with two allomorphs. This effect was observed particularly in words of low to moderate familiarity. The findings suggest that high stem allomorphy, rather than productivity of the inflectional class, is driving the facilitation effect in word recognition.

Objectives: Mild cognitive impairments (MCI) is a transitional state in aging associated with increased risk of incident dementia. The current study investigated whether MCI status moderated the effect of time on word generation during verbal fluency tasks. Specifically, the objective was to determine whether MCI status had differential effects on initial automatic or latter more effortful retrieval processes of fluency tasks. Methods: Participants were community residing older adults enrolled in a longitudinal cohort study. Of the 408 participants, 353 were normal (age=76.06±6.61; %female=57.8) and 55 were diagnosed with MCI (age=78.62±7.00; %female=52.7). Phonemic and category fluency were each administered for 60 s, but performance was recorded at three consecutive 20-s intervals (0–20 s [T1], 21–40 s [T2], 41–60 s [T3]. Separate linear mixed effects models for each fluency task were used to determine the effects of group, time, and their interaction on word generation. Results: In both fluency tasks, word generation declined as a function of time. Individuals with MCI generated fewer words compared to controls during the first 20 s of phonemic (beta=−1.56; p<.001; d=0.28) and category fluency (beta=−1.85; p<.001; d=0.37). Group by time interactions revealed that individuals with MCI demonstrated attenuated declines in word generation from the first to the second and third time intervals of both phonemic ([T1 vs. T2] beta=2.17, p=.001; d=0.41; [T1 vs. T3]beta=2.28, p=.001; d=0.45) and category ([T1 vs. T2] beta= 2.22, p=.002; d=0.50; [T1 vs. T3]beta=3.16, p<.001; d=0.71) fluency. Conclusions: Early automatic retrieval processes in verbal fluency tasks are compromised in MCI. (JINS, 2017, 23, 44–55)

Whether multiple conscious efforts at word search bring a subject closer to an elusive word and to eventual successful retrieval remains a subject of debate. Previous work with normal participants has shown that multiple attempts eventuating in correct retrieval are not usually associated with a systematic progression toward target word phonology in the intervening attempts. In this study we analyzed the naming errors produced by 30 aphasic patients who had received the Boston Naming Test. The analyses were designed to elucidate the characteristics of responses that led to eventual success. Our data showed that among aphasics, as with normal subjects, the presence of target-initial phonology in the subject's first response was the most important predictor of correct retrieval. Moreover, progression towards target phonology in the course of multiple attempts was unrelated to eventual correct retrieval. (JINS, 1997, 3, 128–138.)