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Marc Grosjean has investigated the time course of cognition through measurements of action. In a 2005 study with colleagues, he analysed mouse tracking data to test how spoken word recognition unfolds while a listener is already moving toward a possible answer.^[ref]

Participants saw two pictured objects and heard the name of one. A target such as “candle” could appear beside “candy”, whose name shares its beginning, or beside a phonologically unrelated object. The investigators sampled the cursor's coordinates during the movement, rather than recording only its endpoint. Movements toward the correct object were drawn farther toward the competing object in the similar-name condition.^[ref]

The example makes a measurement distinction concrete. Two trials can end with the same correct click yet follow different paths, revealing phonological competition that accuracy alone would miss. The cursor is an observable motor response, so conclusions about internal representations still require an explicit model connecting movement with language processing.

Phonological competition occurs when speech forms with overlapping sounds are simultaneously plausible candidates during spoken word recognition and influence the eventual selection. For example, hearing the beginning of “candle” can make “candy” temporarily relevant as well. Later acoustic evidence can resolve the ambiguity even though the alternative has already affected processing.

In a 2005 experiment, a listener saw two pictures and used a mouse to select the named object. When the competing picture had a similar-sounding name, such as “candy” beside “candle”, the movement toward the correct object was drawn farther toward that competitor than toward an unrelated alternative. The comparison demonstrated an effect of phonological competition on the path of the response, beyond whether the final click was correct.^[ref]

This suggests a useful experimental distinction: accuracy measures the final choice, while reaction time and mouse tracking can reveal costs and intermediate influences. Similarity alone does not establish competition; a controlled manipulation must show that the alternative changes processing or behaviour.