Speech Errors, Phonotactic Constraints, and Implicit Learning: A Study of the Role of Experience in Language Production

Speech errors follow the phonotactics of the language being spoken. For example, in English, if [n] is mispronounced as [(latin small letter eng)], the [(latin small letter eng] will always appear in a syllable coda. The authors created an analogue to this phenomenon by having participants recite lists of consonant-vowel-consonant syllables in 4 sessions on different days. In the first 2 experiments, some consonants were always onsets, some were always codas, and some coujd be both. In a third experiment, the set of possible onsets and codas depended on vowel identity. In all 3 studies, the production errors that occurred respected the "phonotactics" of the experiment. The results illustrate the implicit learning of the sequential constraints present in the stimuli and show that the language production system adapts to recent experience.