Cross linguistic study on phonological similarity effect

Abstract

The phonological similarity effect (PSE), poor retention of order for lists of similar-sounding items is a benchmark finding in the short-term memory literature. While the models of PSE have been investigated after extensive studies on monolinguals, the bilingual population would serve as a potential platform to examine PSE from cross linguistic perspective. The main aim of the study is to examine the PSE in Malayalam – English bilingual speakers and to find out a) The factors that facilitate serial recall b) Whether phonologically similar words have a detrimental effect on serial recall task c) Whether lexicality plays a role on PSE d) Whether the PSE on item recall is crucially affected by lexicality. Ten typical Malayalam -English bilinguals in the age range of 20 -25 years were selected for the study. Stimuli were categorized into five different lists, namely rhyming words list, alliterative words list, rhyming non- words, alliterative non words and simple non-word list in both English and Malayalam. The audio recorded stimuli were presented through the DMDX program. Subjects were instructed to recall maximum number of items in the serial order. The superior performance on rhyming words and alliterative words over simple non- words is in consonance with the lexicality effect reported in the literature. Consistent with the existing literature, our results also confirmed the categorical cueing effects which are responsible for better performance in recall of rhyme nonword over simple nonword and alliterative nonwords over simple nonwords which in turn supports feature based model. Overall the results show similarities in PSE between Malayalam and English thus suggesting that the PSE construct employed to propose short term memory models for English language would also explain PSE in Malayalam though the two languages are from different families.