Ordering of Words by the Spoken Word Recognition Time

We measured the time needed to recognize spoken words in a group of 12 subjects. We see that recognition time varies for different words with the same sound duration and they can be ordered from the word perceived most quickly to the "slowest" one. Every subject "generates" his own ordered list of 24 words used. The individual lists are similar to some extent, so that the robust average list can be compiled. Presumably, it reflects distribution of the word representations in the cortex and the time required to retrieve any word depends on its position.