{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,18]],"date-time":"2026-05-18T06:08:00Z","timestamp":1779084480538,"version":"3.51.4"},"reference-count":56,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,18]],"date-time":"2026-05-18T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1779062400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Psychol."],"abstract":"<jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Introduction<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Numerous studies have shown that consonants play a more crucial role than vowels in lexical recognition and learning, a phenomenon known as the C-Bias or C-advantage. While traditionally considered universal, recent findings suggest it may depend on language-specific phonotactic properties. This study examines whether the C-Bias is modulated by phonotactic constraints in Spanish, where vowels may have a discriminative advantage due to their distinctiveness.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Seventy-seven native Spanish-speaking university students completed a Cross-Situational Word Learning task with pseudowords in two syllabic structures: monosyllabic (CVC) and disyllabic (CVCV).<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>The results revealed a vowel bias in monosyllabic pseudowords and a partial consonant bias in disyllabic pseudowords.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Discussion<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>These findings indicate that phonotactic structure shapes the relative salience of consonants and vowels in lexical processing, challenging the assumption of a universal C-Bias. This study highlights the role of language-specific phonological constraints in word learning and suggests that phonological processing is more flexible than previously assumed.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.3389\/fpsyg.2026.1757864","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,18]],"date-time":"2026-05-18T05:44:37Z","timestamp":1779083077000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Phonotactic structure modulates the role of consonants and vowels in lexical processing: evidence from Spanish"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"17","author":[{"given":"Mar\u00eda","family":"Rodr\u00edguez-Moreno","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Neuroscience and Education Laboratory Leeduca, Department of Developmental and Educational Psychology, Faculty of Psychology and Speech Therapy, University of M\u00e1laga","place":["M\u00e1laga, Spain"]}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Amanda","family":"Flores","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Neuroscience and Education Laboratory Leeduca, Department of Basic Psychology, Faculty of Psychology and Speech Therapy, University of M\u00e1laga","place":["M\u00e1laga, Spain"]}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Paola","family":"Escudero","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"The MARCS Institute for Brain, Behavior and Development, Western Sydney University","place":["Westmead, NSW, Australia"]}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"P. Javier","family":"L\u00f3pez-P\u00e9rez","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Neuroscience and Education Laboratory Leeduca, Department of Developmental and Educational Psychology, Faculty of Psychology and Speech Therapy, University of M\u00e1laga","place":["M\u00e1laga, Spain"]},{"name":"Centro M\u00e9dico Cognitivo e Investigaci\u00f3n (CMCI)","place":["Barranquilla, Colombia"]}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Juan L.","family":"Luque","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Neuroscience and Education Laboratory Leeduca, Department of Developmental and Educational Psychology, Faculty of Psychology and Speech Therapy, University of M\u00e1laga","place":["M\u00e1laga, Spain"]}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,18]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref1","first-page":"668","volume-title":"The Oxford Handbook of Laboratory Phonology","author":"Baayen","year":"2012"},{"key":"ref2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.18637\/jss.v067.i01","article-title":"Fitting linear mixed-effects models using lme4","volume":"67","author":"Bates","year":"2015","journal-title":"J. Stat. Softw."},{"key":"ref3","first-page":"341","article-title":"PRAAT, a system for doing phonetics by computer","volume":"5","author":"Boersma","year":"2001","journal-title":"Glot. Int."},{"key":"ref4","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"451","DOI":"10.1111\/j.0956-7976.2005.01556.x","article-title":"Linguistic constraints on statistical computations","volume":"16","author":"Bonatti","year":"2005","journal-title":"Psychol. Sci."},{"key":"ref5","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"587","DOI":"10.1111\/desc.12242","article-title":"Call me Alix, not Elix: vowels are more important than consonants in own-name recognition at 5 months","volume":"18","author":"Bouchon","year":"2014","journal-title":"Dev. Sci."},{"key":"ref6","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"2659","DOI":"10.1093\/cercor\/bhp019","article-title":"Consonants and vowels contribute differently to visual word recognition: ERPs of relative position priming","volume":"19","author":"Carreiras","year":"2009","journal-title":"Cereb. Cortex"},{"key":"ref7","first-page":"63","article-title":"Caracterizaci\u00f3n ac\u00fastica de la reducci\u00f3n voc\u00e1lica en el espa\u00f1ol de Bogot\u00e1","volume":"26","author":"Correa","year":"2017","journal-title":"Estudios de fon\u00e9tica experimental"},{"key":"ref8","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jml.2005.09.003","article-title":"Acquiring an artificial lexicon: segment type and order information in early lexical entries","volume":"54","author":"Creel","year":"2006","journal-title":"J. Mem. Lang."},{"key":"ref9","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"295","DOI":"10.12795\/ph.19961997.v11.i01.20","article-title":"An\u00e1lisis instrumental de la duraci\u00f3n de las vocales en espa\u00f1ol","volume":"1","author":"Cuenca","year":"1996","journal-title":"Philologia hispalensis"},{"key":"ref10","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"725","DOI":"10.1111\/j.1467-7687.2009.00814.x","article-title":"Weighting of vowel cues explains patterns of word\u2013object associative learning","volume":"12","author":"Curtin","year":"2009","journal-title":"Dev. Sci."},{"key":"ref11","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"296","DOI":"10.1006\/jmla.2001.2814","article-title":"Rhythmic categories in spoken-word recognition","volume":"46","author":"Cutler","year":"2002","journal-title":"J. Mem. Lang."},{"key":"ref12","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"746","DOI":"10.3758\/bf03198409","article-title":"Constraints of vowels and consonants on lexical selection: cross-linguistic comparisons","volume":"28","author":"Cutler","year":"2000","journal-title":"Mem. Cogn."},{"key":"ref13","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"9576","DOI":"10.1121\/10.0019576","article-title":"Consonant bias in adult lexical processing under acoustically degraded listening conditions","volume":"3","author":"De la Cruz-Pav\u00eda","year":"2023","journal-title":"JASA Express Letters"},{"key":"ref14","volume-title":"Linguistic Perception and second Language Acquisition: Explaining the Attainment of Optimal Phonological Categorization (Ph.D. Thesis)","author":"Escudero","year":"2005"},{"key":"ref15","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1059","DOI":"10.3389\/fpsyg.2014.01059","article-title":"Magnitude of phonetic distinction predicts success at early word learning in native and non-native accents","volume":"5","author":"Escudero","year":"2014","journal-title":"Front. Psychol."},{"key":"ref16","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"455","DOI":"10.1111\/cogs.12243","article-title":"Cross-situational learning of minimal word pairs","volume":"40","author":"Escudero","year":"2016","journal-title":"Cogn. Sci."},{"key":"ref17","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"543","DOI":"10.1111\/lang.12550","article-title":"Investigating orthographic versus auditory cross-situational word learning with online and laboratory-based testing","volume":"73","author":"Escudero","year":"2023","journal-title":"Lang. Learn."},{"key":"ref18","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1618","DOI":"10.3390\/brainsci12121618","article-title":"Explaining L2 lexical learning in multiple scenarios: cross-situational word learning in L1 mandarin L2 English speakers","volume":"12","author":"Escudero","year":"2022","journal-title":"Brain Sci."},{"key":"ref002","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"173","DOI":"10.1017\/9781009105767.009","article-title":"The second language linguistic perception model","volume-title":"The Cambridge Handbook of Bilingual Phonetics and Phonology","author":"Escudero","year":"2024"},{"key":"ref19","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1085","DOI":"10.1017\/s0305000913000287","article-title":"English-learning one- to two-year-olds do not show a consonant bias in word learning","volume":"41","author":"Floccia","year":"2013","journal-title":"J. Child Lang."},{"key":"ref20","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"468","DOI":"10.1006\/jmla.2000.2784","article-title":"Age-of-acquisition, word frequency, and neighborhood density effects on spoken word recognition by children and adults","volume":"45","author":"Garlock","year":"2001","journal-title":"J. Mem. Lang."},{"key":"ref21","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"84","DOI":"10.1177\/0023830917706529","article-title":"Statistical speech segmentation in tone languages: the role of lexical tones","volume":"61","author":"G\u00f3mez","year":"2017","journal-title":"Lang. Speech"},{"key":"ref22","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"254","DOI":"10.1177\/0023830913507693","article-title":"A consonant\/vowel asymmetry in word-form processing: evidence in childhood and in adulthood","volume":"57","author":"Havy","year":"2014","journal-title":"Lang. Speech"},{"key":"ref9002","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Consonants and vowels: different roles in early language acquisition\n          \n          1445\n          1458\n          \n            \n              Hochmann\n              J.-R.\n            \n            \n              Benavides-Varela\n              S.\n            \n            \n              Nespor\n              M.\n            \n            \n              Mehler\n              J.\n            \n          \n          10.1111\/j.1467-7687.2011.01089.x\n          Dev. Sci.\n          14\n          2011","DOI":"10.1111\/j.1467-7687.2011.01089.x"},{"key":"ref23","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"41","DOI":"10.1111\/desc.12286","article-title":"Vowel bias in Danish word-learning: processing biases are language-specific","volume":"19","author":"H\u00f8jen","year":"2015","journal-title":"Dev. Sci."},{"key":"ref24","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"434","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jml.2007.11.007","article-title":"Categorical data analysis: away from ANOVAs (transformation or not) and towards logit mixed models","volume":"59","author":"Jaeger","year":"2008","journal-title":"J. Mem. Lang."},{"key":"ref25","volume-title":"Fundamentos del lenguaje","author":"Jakobson","year":"1967"},{"key":"ref26","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"922","DOI":"10.1111\/j.1467-9280.2007.02001.x","article-title":"Does grammar constrain statistical learning?","volume":"18","author":"Keidel","year":"2007","journal-title":"Psychol. Sci."},{"key":"ref9001","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"193","DOI":"10.1016\/S0010-9452(69)80031-6","article-title":"Phonemic paraphasias: linguistic structures and tentative hypotheses","volume":"5","author":"Lecours","year":"1969","journal-title":"Cortex"},{"key":"ref27","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jml.2013.12.001","article-title":"Differential processing of consonants and vowels in the auditory modality: a cross-linguistic study","volume":"72","author":"Luche","year":"2013","journal-title":"J. Mem. Lang."},{"key":"ref28","author":"L\u00fcdecke","year":"2023"},{"key":"ref29","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.1017\/CBO9780511753459","volume-title":"Patterns of Sounds","author":"Maddieson","year":"1984"},{"key":"ref30","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"445","DOI":"10.1111\/j.1532-7078.2009.00027.x","article-title":"Twelve-month-olds know their cups from their keps and tups","volume":"15","author":"Mani","year":"2010","journal-title":"Infancy"},{"key":"ref31","first-page":"73","article-title":"Vowel mutability: the case of monolingual Spanish listeners and bilingual Spanish-English listeners","volume":"21","author":"Marks","year":"2002","journal-title":"Southwest J. Linguist."},{"key":"ref32","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"846","DOI":"10.1016\/s0010-9452(08)70427-1","article-title":"The \u201csoul\u201d of language does not use statistics: reflections on vowels and consonants","volume":"42","author":"Mehler","year":"2006","journal-title":"Cortex"},{"key":"ref33","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"326","DOI":"10.1075\/ml.7.3.04moa","article-title":"Vowel mutability in print in English and Spanish","volume":"7","author":"Moates","year":"2012","journal-title":"Ment. Lex."},{"key":"ref34","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"2395","DOI":"10.1121\/1.4780660","article-title":"Frequency effects in phoneme processing","volume":"115","author":"Moates","year":"2004","journal-title":"J. Acoust. Soc. Am."},{"key":"ref35","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"e12731","DOI":"10.1111\/cogs.12731","article-title":"Cross-situational learning of phonologically overlapping words across degrees of ambiguity","volume":"43","author":"Mulak","year":"2019","journal-title":"Cogn. Sci."},{"key":"ref36","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"213","DOI":"10.1098\/rsif.2017.0213","article-title":"The coefficient of determination R2 and intra-class correlation coefficient from generalized linear mixed-effects models revisited and expanded","volume":"14","author":"Nakagawa","year":"2017","journal-title":"J. R. Soc. Interface"},{"key":"ref37","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"25","DOI":"10.1146\/annurev-linguistics-011718-011919","article-title":"How consonants and vowels shape spoken-language recognition","volume":"5","author":"Nazzi","year":"2019","journal-title":"Annu. Rev. Linguist."},{"key":"ref38","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"203","DOI":"10.1418\/10879","article-title":"On the different roles of vowels and consonants in speech processing and language acquisition","volume":"2","author":"Nespor","year":"2003","journal-title":"Lingue e linguaggio"},{"key":"ref39","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1223","DOI":"10.1111\/j.1467-9280.2008.02228.x","article-title":"Differential processing of consonants and vowels in lexical access through reading","volume":"19","author":"New","year":"2008","journal-title":"Psychol. Sci."},{"key":"ref40","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"460","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jml.2010.11.004","article-title":"Cues and cue interactions in segmenting words in fluent speech","volume":"64","author":"Newman","year":"2011","journal-title":"J. Mem. Lang."},{"key":"ref41","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1727","DOI":"10.1121\/1.2161431","article-title":"The relative roles of vowels and consonants in discriminating talker identity versus word meaning","volume":"119","author":"Owren","year":"2006","journal-title":"J. Acoust. Soc. Am."},{"key":"ref43","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"135","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jecp.2014.11.011","article-title":"Consonant\/vowel asymmetry in early word form recognition","volume":"131","author":"Poltrock","year":"2015","journal-title":"J. Exp. Child Psychol."},{"key":"ref42","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.3389\/fpsyg.2018.01211","article-title":"Adult learning of novel words in a non-native language: consonants, vowels, and tones","volume":"9","author":"Poltrock","year":"2018","journal-title":"Front. Psychol."},{"key":"ref44","volume-title":"Tratado de fonolog\u00eda y fon\u00e9tica espa\u00f1olas","author":"Quilis","year":"1993"},{"key":"ref45","first-page":"71","article-title":"Dise\u00f1o y evaluaci\u00f3n de reglas de duraci\u00f3n en la conversi\u00f3n de texto a voz","volume":"2","author":"Santos","year":"1998","journal-title":"Proces. Leng. Nat."},{"key":"ref46","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"309","DOI":"10.1016\/j.bandl.2004.07.002","article-title":"Lexical retrieval constrained by sound structure: the role of the left inferior frontal gyrus","volume":"92","author":"Sharp","year":"2005","journal-title":"Brain Lang."},{"key":"ref47","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"137","DOI":"10.1111\/j.1467-9280.2008.02059.x","article-title":"Finding words and rules in a speech stream","volume":"19","author":"Toro","year":"2008","journal-title":"Psychol. Sci."},{"key":"ref48","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"602471","DOI":"10.3389\/fcomm.2020.602471","article-title":"Cross-situational word learning in two foreign languages: effects of native language and perceptual difficulty","volume":"5","author":"Tuninetti","year":"2020","journal-title":"Front. Commun."},{"key":"ref003","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1000","DOI":"10.3389\/fpsyg.2015.01000","article-title":"Learning to perceive and recognize a second language: the L2LP model revised","volume":"6","author":"Van Leussen","year":"2015","journal-title":"Front. Psychol."},{"key":"ref49","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"573","DOI":"10.3758\/bf03201084","article-title":"Vowel mutability and lexical selection in English: evidence from a word reconstruction task","volume":"24","author":"Van Ooijen","year":"1996","journal-title":"Mem. Cogn."},{"key":"ref50","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"24","DOI":"10.3390\/brainsci8020024","article-title":"Consonant and vowel processing in word form segmentation: an infant ERP study","volume":"8","author":"Von Holzen","year":"2018","journal-title":"Brain Sci."},{"key":"ref51","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"59","DOI":"10.1177\/0023830915578000","article-title":"Constraints of tones, vowels and consonants on lexical selection in mandarin Chinese","volume":"59","author":"Wiener","year":"2015","journal-title":"Lang. Speech"},{"key":"ref52","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"740444","DOI":"10.3389\/fpsyg.2021.740444","article-title":"The roles of consonant, rime, and tone in mandarin spoken word recognition: an eye-tracking study","volume":"12","author":"Zou","year":"2022","journal-title":"Front. Psychol."}],"container-title":["Frontiers in Psychology"],"original-title":[],"link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.frontiersin.org\/articles\/10.3389\/fpsyg.2026.1757864\/full","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,18]],"date-time":"2026-05-18T05:44:41Z","timestamp":1779083081000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.frontiersin.org\/articles\/10.3389\/fpsyg.2026.1757864\/full"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,18]]},"references-count":56,"alternative-id":["10.3389\/fpsyg.2026.1757864"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/fpsyg.2026.1757864","relation":{},"ISSN":["1664-1078"],"issn-type":[{"value":"1664-1078","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,18]]},"article-number":"1757864"}}