Word context effects on letter recognition. 1979

M M Jacewicz

24 subjects were asked to determine whether a target letter was present in a tachistoscopically exposed word. The presence of the target was detected faster if the target was clarly sounded in the word, that is, the target G in the word TIGER was detected faster than the target G in the word RIGHT. This effect was strongest among subjects whose over-all response time was below the median value. This result was interpreted as evidence that (1) a word is recognized as a whole before its component parts are analyzed, (2) the transformation of the word from visual to acoustic code occurs before the analysis of the individual letters, and (3) individual differences in efficiency of target detection depend on a subject's over-all response time.

UI MeSH Term Description Entries
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
D010700 Phonetics The science or study of speech sounds and their production, transmission, and reception, and their analysis, classification, and transcription. (Random House Unabridged Dictionary, 2d ed) Speech Sounds,Sound, Speech,Sounds, Speech,Speech Sound
D011930 Reaction Time The time from the onset of a stimulus until a response is observed. Response Latency,Response Speed,Response Time,Latency, Response,Reaction Times,Response Latencies,Response Times,Speed, Response,Speeds, Response
D011932 Reading Acquiring information from text.
D004193 Discrimination Learning Learning that is manifested in the ability to respond differentially to various stimuli. Discriminative Learning,Discrimination Learnings,Discriminative Learnings,Learning, Discrimination,Learning, Discriminative
D005260 Female Females
D005556 Form Perception The sensory discrimination of a pattern, shape, or outline. Contour Perception,Contour Perceptions,Form Perceptions,Perception, Contour,Perception, Form,Perceptions, Contour,Perceptions, Form
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

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