Which statement is true regarding lexical neighborhoods?

Lexical neighborhoods refer to sets of words that share similar phonological or orthographic characteristics, essentially the idea that words that sound alike or look alike can influence one another in language processing. When discussing the density of lexical neighborhoods, it is recognized that some words have a high number of neighbors, while others have relatively few. This variability in the number of phonetic or orthographic similar words is what constitutes their density. High-density neighborhoods have many similar-sounding or similar-looking words, which can affect how easily a person can recognize or produce a particular target word.

The other statements do not accurately represent the concept of lexical neighborhoods. They do not contain only unrelated words, as that would contradict the very definition. They do not solely focus on pronunciation since lexical neighborhoods can also involve orthographic similarity. Finally, while neighborhoods can influence understanding, they do not always lead to accurate understanding because the presence of numerous similar words can create confusion or ambiguity. Thus, the statement regarding variability in density accurately captures an essential aspect of lexical neighborhoods.