Research on spoken word perception and production has identified two hallmarks of spoken word processing: multiple activation of representations of the sound patterns of words in memory and subsequent competition among these patterns. Evidence for this activation-competition process has come, in part, from experimental studies examining the effects of phonological neighborhoods, which are collections of similar-sounding words that are activated in memory during both perception and production. In this article, we review more than 20 years of research on phonological neighborhood effects in spoken word processing that has demonstrated that the speed and accuracy of spoken word perception and production are, in large part, a function of the density and frequency of neighborhoods of spoken words. We conclude our review with a discussion of new avenues of research—based on recent advances in network science—that hold the promise of deepening our understanding of the mental operations involved in our uniquely human capacity for communicating with the spoken word.
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