Scanning and the familiarity effect in tachistoscopic recognition.

Tachistoscopically presented to 16 undergraduates pseudowords of 1st- or 4th-approximation to English. The pseudowords were printed in normal or in reversed orientation, and Ss were required to report the material from left to right or from right to left. Recall was lower when reporting right-left than when reporting left-right. However, the familiarity effect was controlled by the orientation of the letter sequences, not the direction of report. Results are discussed in terms of a scanning model for the familiarity effect. (French summary) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)