Wait long and prosper! Delaying production alleviates its detrimental effect on word learning

Recent work by Baese-Berk and Samuel (Baese-Berk, M. M., & Samuel, A. G. (2022). Just give it time: Differential effects of disruption and delay on perceptual learning. Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, 84(3), 960–980.) suggests that immediate – but not delayed – production has a detrimental effect on learning a non-native speech sound contrast. We tested whether this pattern is also found for word learning. Each participant learned 12 new words in one of four training conditions: Perception-Only, Immediate-Production, 2-seconds-Delayed-Production, and 4-seconds-Delayed-Production. At test, we assessed how well new words were embedded into the mental lexicon by measuring the degree to which they could drive phonemic recalibration (also called “perceptual learning”). Training and testing were repeated on the next day along with a word recognition task assessing lexical configuration. Replicating previous findings, Day 1 results showed that repeating a new word immediately after hearing it disrupted learning compared to just hearing it. Critically, in line with our prediction, this negative effect disappeared when a 4-second pause was inserted between hearing and producing each word.