Behavioral and Brain Sciences

Table of Contents - 1999 - Volume 22, Issue 01  


Open Peer Commentary
Levelt et al.: Lexical access in speech production

Decontextualised data IN, decontextualised theory OUT

Benjamin Roberts a1, Mike Kalish a1, Kathryn Hird a2 and Kim Kirsner a1
a1 Psychology Department, University of Western Australia, Perth 6907, Australia benjamin,kalish,kim@psy.uwa.edu.au www.psy.uwa.edu.au
a2 School of Speech and Hearing Science, Curtin University of Technology, Perth 6845, Australia thirdkm@alpha1.curtin.edu.au www.curtin.edu.au/curtin/dept/shs

Abstract

We discuss our concerns associated with three assumptions upon which the model of Levelt, Roelofs & Meyer is based: assumed generalisability of decontextualised experimental programs, assumed highly modular architecture of the language production systems, and assumed symbolic computations within the language production system. We suggest that these assumptions are problematic and require further justification.