ABSTRACT
First, however, we should consider whether there might be a link between speech comprehension (‘decoding’) and production (‘encoding’). It would be simpler for psycholinguists if they were directly related. However, there is no reason to assume this is so, any more than we should presume that the same muscles are used in sucking and blowing. We must therefore allow for four possibilities:
1 Encoding and decoding are totally different. 2 Decoding is encoding in reverse. 3 Decoding is the same as encoding: that is, decoders reconstruct
the message for themselves in the same way as they would construct it if they were speakers.
