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.