The key difference between the interactive activation model of reading and the TRACE model of speech perception is that only the former contains lateral inhibition at the word level.

Question

BlackTom AI · Accepted Answer

The statement to evaluate is: 'The key difference between the interactive activation model of reading and the TRACE model of speech perception is that only the former contains lateral inhibition at the word level.'

Option analysis:
- Option: False
  The TRACE model of speech perception is characterized by a highly interconnected, parallel architecture with multiple levels (feature, phoneme, and word) that not only propagates activation both bottom-up and top-down but also includes competitive interactions across units at each level. Importantly, TRACE includes lateral (competitive) interactions at the word level, where multiple candidate words compete for activation and inhibit each other. Therefore, lateral inhibition at the word level is not unique to the interactive activation model; TRACE also employs such inhibition. This makes the claim that only the reading IA model has word-level lateral inhibition incorrect.

Why the statement is incorrect in more detail:
- The interactive activation model (reading) was designed to account for letter and feature-level interactions, with lateral inhibition operating to help resolve ambiguity among letters and features, but this model does not entail word-level lateral inhibition as a central, defining feature. Its emphasis is on how letters activate possible words and how feedback can strengthen or weaken activation, often without positing explicit word-level lateral competition in the same way TRACE does.
- TRACE explicitly models lateral inhibition and competition at the word level, as well as at smaller scales (features and phonemes). The presence of competitive dynamics among words is a core mechanism that helps explain how viewers perceive continuous speech by selecting among competing lexical items.
- Given that TRACE includes word-level competition, and the IA model does not hinge on that same mechanism at the word level, the claim that only the IA model contains word-level lateral inhibition is false.

In summary, both models employ competitive processes, including at the word level in TRACE, so the statement misattributes the existence of word-level lateral inhibition to only the interactive activation model.

PSYC20007_2025_SM2 Week 11: Language 第 11 周：语言

The key difference between the interactive activation model of reading and the TRACE model of speech perception is that only the former contains lateral inhibition at the word level.

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