Challenges Facing a Complementary-systems Approach to Abstract and Episodic Speech Perception

It has been nearly a decade since the publication of Goldinger’s [4] Psych. Review paper in which he presented his episodic theory of lexical access. Moreover, Goldinger’s (and others’) empirical work [3, 14] providing evidence for episodic representations predates the formal presentation of his episodic theory. This is an appropriate time to note how the field has progressed in the past decade with respect to the debate over the nature of lexical representations. As evidenced by the two main papers, the emphasis is no longer on whether there are abstract and/or episodic representations. Instead, the focus is now on the ideal framework that can account for their coexistence. Goldinger’s presentation of a complementary systems (hereafter CS) approach offers a glimpse into the direction that many future investigations of lexical representation may be headed. I discuss some of the challenges facing a CS approach in an effort to stimulate further discussion, and to help provide an impetus for future empirical, theoretical, and modeling studies.