The recognition of tachistoscopically presented words, varying in imagery, part of speech and word frequency, in the left and right visual fields. 1985

M K Jackman

Previous research has shown conflicting findings when subjects have performed some task involving words varying in imagery, part of speech (nouns versus verbs) and word frequency presented to the left and right visual fields. This problem was investigated in the present paper. In the first investigation, a group of subjects rated 308 words for imagery and part of speech. It showed that nouns tended to be of higher imagery than verbs. This implies that it is important to control for part of speech while investigating imagery, and vice versa. Experiments 2 and 3 investigated the effects of imagery and part of speech on recognition performance using different sets of words and subjects while keeping other aspects of the experiments identical. Conflicting results were found when the analysis regarded words as being a 'fixed effect' rather than a 'random effect' (cf. Clark, 1973). A quasi-F analysis revealed no significant effects due to either variable. When the data were combined from the two experiments, a quasi-F analysis revealed that imagery had an equal effect in both visual fields. Thus we can draw the conclusion that the effect of imagery in both visual fields is reliable across both new subjects and new words. However, a sufficiently large sample is required in order to demonstrate this. No other effects were significant. Experiment 4 investigated the effect of frequency on report from the two visual fields. Quasi-F analysis revealed that the effect of frequency was larger in the right visual field than in the left visual field. We can conclude that this effect is reliable across both new subjects and new words--if a sufficiently large sample is used. The findings are discussed. in terms of whether one could ever draw conclusions on the basis of previous work, when the analysis had regarded words as a fixed effect. It was concluded that it was possible to draw tentative conclusions, but a firm conclusion could only be based on an experiment in which large numbers of words had been used and in which the results were significant on a quasi-F analysis.

UI MeSH Term Description Entries
D007092 Imagination A new pattern of perceptual or ideational material derived from past experience. Imaginations
D007839 Functional Laterality Behavioral manifestations of cerebral dominance in which there is preferential use and superior functioning of either the left or the right side, as in the preferred use of the right hand or right foot. Ambidexterity,Behavioral Laterality,Handedness,Laterality of Motor Control,Mirror Writing,Laterality, Behavioral,Laterality, Functional,Mirror Writings,Motor Control Laterality,Writing, Mirror,Writings, Mirror
D008037 Linguistics The science of language, including phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics, and historical linguistics. (Random House Unabridged Dictionary, 2d ed) Linguistic
D008297 Male Males
D010364 Pattern Recognition, Visual Mental process to visually perceive a critical number of facts (the pattern), such as characters, shapes, displays, or designs. Recognition, Visual Pattern,Visual Pattern Recognition
D011932 Reading Acquiring information from text.
D005260 Female Females
D006801 Humans Members of the species Homo sapiens. Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man
D000293 Adolescent A person 13 to 18 years of age. Adolescence,Youth,Adolescents,Adolescents, Female,Adolescents, Male,Teenagers,Teens,Adolescent, Female,Adolescent, Male,Female Adolescent,Female Adolescents,Male Adolescent,Male Adolescents,Teen,Teenager,Youths
D000328 Adult A person having attained full growth or maturity. Adults are of 19 through 44 years of age. For a person between 19 and 24 years of age, YOUNG ADULT is available. Adults

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