Le lexique mental: Modèle d'organisation du lexique mental.

Discusses a model of a mental lexicon that considers the position of a word in a sentence, the morphological structure of the word, and morphological rules for interpreting unknown words. The model suggests that the mental lexicon contains 3 dictionaries: 1 of radical and root words, 1 of affixes, and 1 of rules. The application of morphological rules, especially the rules for derived words, and methods of accessing the mental lexicon are examined. (English abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Caractéristiques perceptives et sémantiques dans la reconnaissance à court terme de mots. Une expérience avec des homonymes.

Several studies have shown that the recognition of homonyms can be affected if their meanings are changed by contextual manipulation. It does not necessarily follow that meaning is the sole determinant of recognition: Some studies show that the perceptual characteristics of words are more important for recognition than semantic properties. The present experiment with 8- and 16-yr-old students and young adults showed that, although context did induce changes in the encoding of homonyms, their recognition was not affected by these changes in meaning. (23 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Le lexique mental: Modèles d'accès au lexique.

Presents a critical review of major models of access to the mental lexicon, emphasizing the way that different models deal with the effects of frequency and context. The review covers models of indirect access—K. I. Forster's search model (1976–1984), C. A. Becker's verification model (1976–1980), W. D. Marslen-Wilson's cohort model (1978–1987), and D. G. Norris' assessment model (1984, 1986). Direct access models—J. Morton's logogenic model (1969–1982) and B. Gordon's resonance model (1983, 1985)—are also reviewed. It is concluded that processing of words or nonwords depends both on lexical knowledge and on application of lexical rules and that frequency and familiarity are 2 distinct variables reflecting different psychological processes. (English abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reprèsentations verbales et transformations des stimulus en mémoire de travail.

During their storage in episodic memory, representations of words (or of other stimuli already known to Ss) can be transformed in working memory into representations of other words or stimuli by the application of transformation rules. In that way, items that have not been presented in learning lists can be recalled or recognized. Four experiments were conducted to induce these transformations by means of appropriate cues provided to 12–18 yr olds at the same time as the learning lists stimuli. The presence of those cues influenced recall and recognition significantly in comparison with control situations without cues; in particular, Ss recognized not-presented items corresponding to induced transformations of the stimuli presented. It is assumed that such operations may go with the item's retrieval from the mental lexicon. This possibility would provide an important functional argument in favor of the mental lexicon organization in the form of generic entries from which words could be derived by the application of rules similar to those studied in the present experiment. (28 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Représentation lexicale du genre et de ses transformations.

Investigated the format of mental lexicon units, as related to the morphological decomposition of French words, in 3 recall and arranged-form-of-recognition experiments. The possible structure of this lexicon by general categories (e.g., gender, number) was also investigated. The present experiments were based on the principle of inducing a specific processing of gender and of the number of common words by the use of adequate indicators that accompanied each noun presented in recording lists. Results show that gender was represented in the lexicon as a category independent from its lexical and morphemic marks. Findings suggest that this independence could lead to differentiated lexical entries when gender corresponds to differentiated empiric categories. (12 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Recherches sur la morphologie lexicale: Les transformations relatives au nombre.

Studied inflections relative to the number of common nouns in 2 recognition experiments based on models of morphological patterning. In Exp I the 3 processes of pluralization in French were employed in a list of 108 nouns. Ss were asked to recognize and recall singular and plural words on the basis of the phonetic-lexical endings. In Exp II the same nouns, number markers, and combinations were used with Ss being asked if they were the same, another form of the same word, or an entirely different word. Results were assessed by age and school level variables. It is concluded that short-term recall uses episodic memory function based on perception of characteristics, such as graphic or phonetic, of words presented, while number processing occurs at different processing levels. (English abstract) (20 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)