Monitoring, control and repair in word production

Abstract

Word production is the process of turning a thought into motor movements that produce a spoken word. This process has traditionally been studied using two approaches — the psycholinguistic approach and the motor speech approach — that focus on different stages of the production process. In this Perspective, I highlight the strengths of these two approaches and merge them with broader frameworks and theories of action and cognition to open new directions for language production research. I discuss proposed models for how speakers assess whether production is going smoothly (monitoring), adjust to difficulties (control) and fix errors (repair). Each proposal combines language production research with insights from other areas of cognition to demonstrate the utility and necessity of a closer integration of broader cognitive frameworks into models of word production. Word production has typically been studied using two distinct approaches: one focused on higher-level linguistic processes and one on lower-level motor processes. In this Perspective, Nozari draws from both approaches to discuss how speakers assess whether production is going smoothly, adjust to difficulties and fix errors.