Effects of frequency and regularity in an integrative model of word storage and processing

Considerable evidence has accrued on the role of paradigms as both theoretical and cognitive structures regimenting the way words are processed and acquired. The evidence supports a view of the lexicon as an emergent integrative system, where word forms are concurrently and competitively stored as repeatedly successful processing patterns, and on-line processing crucially depends on the internal organisation of stored patterns. In spite of converging evidence in this direction, little efforts have been put so far into providing detailed, algorithmic models of the interaction between lexical token frequency, paradigm frequency, and paradigm regularity in word processing and acquisition. Here we propose a neuro-computational account of the frequency/regularity interaction, and discuss some of its theoretical implications by analysing experimental results in the computational framework of Temporal Self-Organising Maps. Detailed quantitative analysis shows that the model provides a unitary explanatory framework bringing together insights from neighbour family effects on word recognition and production, evidence from family size effects in serial lexical access and paradigm-based dynamics in lexical acquisition.