Multiple Code Activation in Word Recognition : Evidence From Rhyme Monitoring

Seidenberg and Tanenhaus reported that orthographically similar rhymes were detected more rapidly than dissimilar rhymes in a rhyme monitoring task with auditory stimulus presentation. The present experiments investigated the hy- pothesis that these results were due to a rhyme production-frequency bias in favor of similar rhymes that was present in their materials. In three experiments subjects monitored short word lists for the word that rhymed with a cue presented prior to each list. All stimuli were presented auditorily. Cue-target rhyme pro- duction frequency was equated for orthographically similar and dissimilar rhymes. Similar rhymes were detected more rapidly in all three experiments indicating that orthographic information was accessed in auditory word recog- nition. The results suggest that multiple codes are automatically accessed in word recognition. This entails a «interpretation of phonological "recodine" in visual word recognition.