In a speeded forced choice task that emphasized processing

efficiency. The effects of sound symbolism on both types

of tasks and processing highlight a potential role for these

constraints in word learning.

The current investigation provides one of the first

demonstrations that learners can use sound symbolic

relationships to derive meaning during spoken language

processing. Although arbitrariness certainly remains a

central design characteristic of linguistic structure, these

results indicate that language users can and do exploit nonarbitrary

relationships in the service of word learning and

retrieval.

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Jessica D. Alexander and

Stig Rasmussen for their help preparing stimuli and

developing protocols. A portion of this research was

supported by an Emory College Scholarly Research and

Inquiry at Emory (sire) undergraduate research grant to

the second author.

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