A Critique of Top-down Independent Levels Models of Speech Production: Evidence from Non-plan-Internal Speech Errors

A number of speech errors ore examined which ore difficult to account for by top-down serial processing models of speech production which hove independent levels of processing. In porticulor, most of these errors ore characterized by the presence of on interfering element which is external to the utterance under current construction. This paper has two main aims: to classify these errors, and to examine the constraints upon them. It is found thot phonological similarity between the target and intrusion is o motor determinant of error occurrence. The consequences for models of speech production ore discussed in o framework consisting of the architecture and control structure of those models. A particular model to account for these dato is proposed, consisting of o spreading activation lexical network.