Table 1. Lexical stimuli

Vowel Easy words Hard words
O Word C Freq. Dens. O Word C Freq. Dens.
/i/ △ Peace △ 70 2 ▲ Bead ▲ 1 4
△ Teeth △ 48 1 • Weed ▲ 11 6
/ɪ/ ▲ Give ▲ 1168 2 △ Hick △ 2 6
△ Ship △ 99 3 △ Kin • 4 7
△ Thing • 1089 3 △ Kit △ 17 2
/æ/ ▲ Gas △ 68 5 △ Hack △ 8 3
▲ Jack △ 252 3 △ Hash △ 3 5
△ Path △ 25 2 △ Pat △ 18 8
/ɑ/ ▲ Job ▲ 413 4 △ Cod ▲ 2 6
△ Shop △ 54 2 △ Cot △ 2 4
• Wash △ 41 5 • Knob ▲ 2 1
• Watch △ 330 1 • Wad ▲ 2 4
/o/ ▲ Both △ 295 2 ▲ Goat △ 10 4
▲ Vote △ 34 1 • Moat △ 1 3
/u/ △ Food ▲ 154 2 △ Hoop △ 3 7
Mean 276 2.53 5.73 4.67
The vowel’s neighboring consonants (O=the onset, C=the coda) are categorized as a combination of voicing and manner of articulation (▲=voiced obstruent, △=voiceless obstruent, •=sonorants). Also provided are the words’ frequency (occurrence per 1 million words) and neighborhood density values (values obtained from Vaden, Halpin & Hickok, 2009).