Phonological priming in Cantonese spoken-word processing

An auditory priming experiment with 28 native Cantonese speakers was conducted to examine the effects of phonological overlap between monosyllabic target words and preceding primes. In the experiment, listeners heard a pair of Cantonese monosyllables (prime-target) with 250 milliseconds inter-stimulus interval in between and they were instructed to name aloud the second item (target). Results indicated that facilitation was observed in two conditions: (1) shared rime and tone between primes and targets and (2) shared onset and rime between primes and targets. However, when shared the onset and tone between the monosyllabic prime and target, an inhibition effect was observed. These findings are discussed in terms of the segmental and supra-segmental information of Cantonese. Copyright © 2001 by the Psychologia Society.