Hogan, T. P., Bowles, R. P., Catts, H. W., & Storkel, H. L.(2011). The influence of neighborhood density and word frequency on phoneme awareness in 2nd and 4th grades. Journal of Communication Disorders, 44, 49-58..

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that two lexical characteristics - neighborhood density and word frequency - intereact to influence performance on phoneme awareness tasks.
Methods: Phoneme awareness was examined in a large, longitudinal dataset of 2nd and 4th grade children. Using linear logistic  test model, the relation between words' neighborhood density, word frequency, and phoneme awareness performance was examined across grades while co-varying type and place of deletion.
Results: A predicted interaction was revealed: words from dense neighboorhoods or those with high frequency were more likely to yield correct phoneme awareness responses across grades.
Conclusions: Findings support an expansion of the lexical restructuring model to include interactions between neighborhood density and word frequency to account for phoneme awareness.

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