Effects of metrical and segmental information in speech producion [Effetti dell'informazione metrica e segmentale nella produzione di parole]

In the present research we investigate the processing of segmental and suprasegmental information during speech production. To this aim, the two types of information were jointly manipulated in a picture-word interference experiment in which the picture and the word did or did not share the segmental (first syllable) and the stress pattern. The results show that the manipulation of either the segmental or the suprasegmental information may affect speech production, and their effect varies according to whether the target has a dominant or a non-dominant stress pattern. The findings are discussed in reference to the speech production and reading literature.