Semantic relatedness and the scope of facilitation for upcoming words in sentences.

Three experiments examined the generality of context effects displayed for congruous completions appearing in high- and low-constraint sentences. Exp 1 found an effect of context for a broader range of completions for low-constraint than high-constraint sentences. Lexical decisions for unexpected congruous words that were related in meaning to the most expected completion for the sentence showed a benefit from context in low-constraint sentences only. Unexpected words that were unrelated to the most expected completion never benefited from appearing in either high- or low-constraint sentence contexts. Exp 2 varied the semantic relatedness of the unexpected words within Ss and found that unrelated words still did not benefit from sentence context. Exp 3 included only low-constraint sentences to encourage Ss to develop broader expectations for upcoming words. Unrelated words continued not to display any benefit from context. It is concluded that the scope of facilitation for upcoming words demonstrated in a lexical decision task is wider for low-constraint than high-constraint sentences, but never includes unrelated, although acceptable, completions for the sentence. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Bilingual lexical access in context: Evidence from eye movements during reading.

Current models of bilingualism (e.g., BIA+) posit that lexical access during reading is not language selective. However, much of this research is based on the comprehension of words in isolation. The authors investigated whether nonselective access occurs for words embedded in biased sentence contexts (e.g., A. I. Schwartz & J. F. Kroll, 2006). Eye movements were recorded as French–English bilinguals read English sentences containing cognates (e.g., piano), interlingual homographs (e.g., coin, meaning corner in French), or matched control words. Sentences provided a low or high semantic constraint for target-language meanings. Both early-stage comprehension measures (e.g., first fixation duration, gaze duration, and skipping) and late-stage comprehension measures (e.g., go-past time and total reading time) showed significant cognate facilitation and interlingual homograph interference for low-constraint sentences. For high-constraint sentences, however, only early-stage comprehension measures were consistent with nonselective access. There was no evidence of cognate facilitation or interlingual homograph interference for late-stage comprehension measures. Thus, nonselective bilingual lexical access at early stages of comprehension is rapidly resolved in semantically biased contexts at later stages of comprehension. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Frequency drives lexical access in reading but not in speaking: The frequency-lag hypothesis.

To contrast mechanisms of lexical access in production versus comprehension we compared the effects of word frequency (high, low), context (none, low constraint, high constraint), and level of English proficiency (monolingual, Spanish–English bilingual, Dutch–English bilingual) on picture naming, lexical decision, and eye fixation times. Semantic constraint effects were larger in production than in reading. Frequency effects were larger in production than in reading without constraining context but larger in reading than in production with constraining context. Bilingual disadvantages were modulated by frequency in production but not in eye fixation times, were not smaller in low-constraint contexts, and were reduced by high-constraint contexts only in production and only at the lowest level of English proficiency. These results challenge existing accounts of bilingual disadvantages and reveal fundamentally different processes during lexical access across modalities, entailing a primarily semantically driven search in production but a frequency-driven search in comprehension. The apparently more interactive process in production than comprehension could simply reflect a greater number of frequency-sensitive processing stages in production. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Eye movements when reading transposed text: The importance of word-beginning letters.

Participants' eye movements were recorded as they read sentences with words containing transposed adjacent letters. Transpositions were either external (e.g., problme, rpoblem) or internal (e.g., porblem, probelm) and at either the beginning (e.g., rpoblem, porblem) or end (e.g., problme, probelm) of words. The results showed disruption for words with transposed letters compared to the normal baseline condition, and the greatest disruption was observed for word-initial transpositions. In Experiment 1, transpositions within low frequency words led to longer reading times than when letters were transposed within high frequency words. Experiment 2 demonstrated that the position of word-initial letters is most critical even when parafoveal preview of words to the right of fixation is unavailable. The findings have important implications for the roles of different letter positions in word recognition and the effects of parafoveal preview on word recognition processes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Word recognition and identification: Do word-frequency effects reflect lexical access?

Tested the assumption that word-frequency effects on recognition result from differential ease of access to lexical entries for high- and low-frequency words. Previous researchers (McCann & Besner, 1987) found that pseudohomophones (e.g., TRAX) were named faster and more accurately than controls (e.g., PRAX), but pseudohomophone performance was not sensitive to base word frequency. In Exp 1 of the present series, performance on the same set of pseudohomophones and controls was assessed in the context of the lexical decision task (does this letter string spell a word?). Pseudohomophone performance was impaired relative to controls, which is commonly taken as evidence of contact with entries in a phonological lexicon. As in the naming task, however, pseudohomophone performance was insensitive to base word frequency. In Exp 2, pseudohomophone performance was examined in the context of a phonological lexical decision task (does this letter string sound like an English word?). Pseudohomophone performance was sensitive to base word frequency in phonological lexical decision. Word-frequency effects in binary decision tasks such as lexical decision and phonological lexical decision are attributed to a familiarity discriminatiion process that contributes bias to the decision stage. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The role of spatial attention in visual word processing.

Ss made lexical decisions on a target letter string presented above or below fixation. In Exps 1 and 2, target location was cued 100 msec in advance of target onset. Responses were faster on validly than on invalidly cued trials. In Exp 3, the target was sometimes accompanied by irrelevant stimuli on the other side of fixation; in such cases, responses were slowed (a spatial filtering effect). Both cuing and filtering effects on response time were additive with effects of word frequency and lexical status (words vs nonwords). These findings are difficult to reconcile with claims that spatial attention is less involved in processing familiar words than in unfamiliar words and nonwords. The results can be reconciled with a late-selection locus of spatial attention only with difficulty but are easily explained by early selection models. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Visual word recognition by bilinguals in a sentence context: Evidence for nonselective lexical access.

Recent research on bilingualism has shown that lexical access in visual word recognition by bilinguals is not selective with respect to language. In the present study, the authors investigated language-independent lexical access in bilinguals reading sentences, which constitutes a strong unilingual linguistic context. In the first experiment, Dutch-English bilinguals performing a 2nd language (L2) lexical decision task were faster to recognize identical and nonidentical cognate words (e.g., banaan-banana) presented in isolation than control words. A second experiment replicated this effect when the same set of cognates was presented as the final words of low-constraint sentences. In a third experiment that used eyetracking, the authors showed that early target reading time measures also yield cognate facilitation but only for identical cognates. These results suggest that a sentence context may influence, but does not nullify, cross-lingual lexical interactions during early visual word recognition by bilinguals. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Basic processes in reading: Two phonological codes.

In Exp I, 16 undergraduates viewed letter strings that varied in phonological similarity and lexical status. Under a no-interference condition, phonologically distinct lists were better recalled than phonologically confusable ones, and lists with entries in a phonological lexicon (e.g., BRANE) were better recalled than lists without lexical status (e.g., SLINT). When Ss were required to articulate irrelevant sounds, the phonological similarity effect was completely eliminated, but a lexicality effect persisted. In Exp II, another 16 Ss viewed letter strings that varied in syllabic length and lexical status. Pseudohomophones were better recalled than control nonwords under both quiet and articulation conditions, but a syllabic length effect was obtained only in the no-articulation condition. Results show that at least 2 phonological codes underlie performance in a memory-span task. The 1st code permits lexical access from print; suppression does not prevent this code from accessing lexical memory. The 2nd underlies both word length and phonological similarity effects in span; suppression prevents the formation or utilization of this code. Implications for understanding normal reading and developmental reading problems are noted. (French abstract) (41 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Recognizing words and pictures in sentence contexts: A test of lexical modularity.

Words or pictures completed sentence fragments to form coherent or incoherent sentences. Ss made lexical decisions about words and object decisions about pictures. Modality was blocked in Exp 1 and mixed in Exp 2. In both experiments there were similar effects of context for words and pictures, contrary to the hypothesis that lexical priming produces the sentence context effect. Mixed conditions produced longer response latencies than blocked conditions but did not interact with the context effect. The finding of no interaction between the effect of context and the mixed-blocked manipulation supports a version of lexical modularity in which context effects arise as a function of post-access integration processing. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Phonological priming in auditory word recognition.

Used a priming technique to test specific predictions regarding cohort activation in 3 experiments involving 170 undergraduates. Ss identified target words embedded in noise at different signal-to-noise ratios. The target words were either presented in isolation or preceded by a prime item that shared phonological information with the target. In Exp I, primes and targets were English words that shared 0, 1, 2, 3, or all phonemes from the beginning of the word. In Exp II, nonword primes preceded word targets and shared initial phonemes. In Exp III, word primes and word targets shared phonemes from the end of a word. Reliable phonological priming was observed in all experiments. Results of Exps I and II support the assumption of activation of lexical candidates based on word-initial information, as proposed in cohort theory; however, results of Exp III, which showed increased probability of correctly identifying targets that shared phonemes from the end of words, did not support the predictions derived from the theory. (34 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Attentional resource demands of visual word recognition in naming and lexical decisions.

Attentional demands of lexical access were assessed with dual-task methodology. Ss performed an auditory probe task alone (single-task) or combined (dual-task) with either a lexical decision or a naming task. In Exp 1, probe performance showed a decrement from single- to dual-task conditions during recognition of words in both lexical decision and naming tasks. In addition, decrements of probe performance were larger during processing of low-frequency compared with high-frequency words in both of the word recognition tasks. Exp 2 showed that the time course of frequency-sensitive demands was similar across lexical decision and naming tasks and that attention is required early in the word recognition sequence. The results support the assumption that lexical access is both frequency sensitive and attention demanding. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Eye movements and the use of parafoveal word length information in reading.

Eye movements were monitored in 4 experiments that explored the role of parafoveal word length in reading. The experiments employed a type of compound word where the deletion of a letter results in 2 short words (e.g., backhand, back and). The boundary technique (K. Rayner, 1975) was employed to manipulate word length information in the parafovea. Accuracy of the parafoveal word length preview significantly affected landing positions and fixation durations. This disruption was larger for 2-word targets, but the results demonstrated that this interaction was not due to the morphological status of the target words. Manipulation of sentence context also demonstrated that parafoveal word length information can be used in combination with sentence context to narrow down lexical candidates. The 4 experiments converge in demonstrating that an important role of parafoveal word length information is to direct the eyes to the center of the parafoveal word. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Lexical priming from partial-word previews.

Two naming and 2 lexical decision experiments examined the use of partial-word previews in visual word recognition. Replicating results of an earlier reading study, the results of Exps 1 and 2 revealed significant benefits from position-specific beginning- and ending-letter previews. Furthermore, benefits from beginning letters were greater for words than for pseudowords. Ending-letter previews showed no corresponding lexical superiority. Exp 3 revealed that preview of position-specific letters from the beginning plus the ending part of target stimuli, which did not reveal a unique word-beginning letter sequence, facilitated the classification of words but not pseudowords. The results support a 2-route model of lexical access in which some partial-word previews afford activation of specific lexical representations, and some partial-word previews afford activation of subword representations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Word familiarity and frequency in visual and auditory word recognition.

Four experiments investigated printed word frequency and subjective rated familiarity. Words of varied printed frequency and subjective familiarity were presented. A reaction time (RT) advantage for high-familiarity and high-frequency words was found in visual (Exp 1) and auditory (Exp 2) lexical decision. In Exps 3 and 4, a cued naming task elicited a naming response after a specified delay after presentation. In Exp 3, naming of visual words showed a frequency effect with no naming delay. The frequency effect diminished at longer delay intervals. Naming times for auditorily presented words (Exp 4) showed no frequency effect at any delay. Both naming experiments showed familiarity effects. The relevance of these results are discussed in terms of the role of printed frequency for theories of lexical access, task- and modality-specific effects, and the nature of subjective familiarity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

On the relation between feeling of knowing and lexical decision: Persistent subthreshold activation or topic familiarity?

Exp 1 replicated I. Yaniv and D. E. Meyer's (1987) finding that lexical decision and episodic recognition performance was better for words previously yielding high-accessibility levels (a combination of feeling-of-knowing and tip-of-the-tongue ratings) in comparison with those yielding low-accessibility levels in a rare word definition task. Exp 2 yielded the same pattern even though lexical decisions preceded accessibility estimates by a full week. Exp 3 dismissed the possibility that the Exp 2 results may have been due to a long-term influence from the lexical decision task to the rare word judgment task. These results support a model in which Ss (1) retrieve topic familiarity information in making accessibility estimates in the rare word definition task and (2) use this information to modulate lexical decision performance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effects of "neighborhood size" in reading and lexical decision.

Assessed the effects of neighborhood size ("N")—the number of words differing from a target word by exactly 1 letter (i.e., "neighbors")—on word identification. In Exps 1 and 2, the frequency of the highest frequency neighbor was equated, and N had opposite effects in lexical decision and reading. In Exp 1, a larger N facilitated lexical decision judgments, whereas in Experiment 2, a larger N had an inhibitory effect on reading sentences that contained the words of Exp 1. Moreover, a significant inhibitory effect in Exp 2 that was due to a larger N appeared on gaze duration on the target word, and there was no hint of facilitation on the measures of reading that tap the earliest processing of a word. In Exp 3, the number of higher frequency neighbors was equated for the high-N and low-N words, and a larger N caused target words to be skipped significantly more and produced inhibitory effects later in reading, some of which were plausibly due to misidentification of the target word when skipped. Regression analyses indicated that, in reading, increasing the number of higher frequency neighbors had a clear inhibitory effect on word identification and that increasing the number of lower frequency neighbors may have a weak facilitative effect on word identification. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The time course of braille word recognition.

Skilled blind readers read French nouns with the uniqueness point in different locations, presented in unabbreviated braille, and either pronounced each item (Exp 1) or classified it as to gender (Exps 1–3). As in previous studies with spoken words, effects of uniqueness point location on recognition reaction time (RT) were taken as demonstrating on-line lexical access. For braille words, significant effects were obtained in Exp 1 in the 2 tasks. In Exp 2, blind Ss demonstrated comparable relative uniqueness point effects for gender classification of braille and of spoken words, showing that on-line lexical access is not specific to speech. Exp 3 showed that the effect of uniqueness point location is limited to the higher frequency words. Finally, mean finger scanning speed did not differ between the pre- and post-uniqueness point regions of the words. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Pictures in sentences: Understanding without words.

In 5 experiments with a total of 120 Ss of college age, sentences were presented in which a pictured object replaced a word (rebus sentences). Sentences were shown using rapid serial visual presentation at a rate of 10 or 12 words/second. With one set of materials (Exp I and II), Ss took longer to judge the plausibility of rebus sentences than all-word sentences, although the accuracy of judgment and of recall were similar for the 2 formats. With 2 new sets of materials (Exps III and V), rebus and all-word sentences were virtually equivalent except in 1 circumstance: when a picture replaced the noun in a familiar phrase such as seedless grapes. In contrast, when the task required overt naming of the rebus picture in a sentence context, latency to name the picture was markedly longer than to name the corresponding word, and the appropriateness of the sentence context affected picture naming but not word naming (Exp IV). It is concluded that the results fail to support theories that place word meanings in a specialized lexical entry. Instead, the results suggest that the lexical representation of a noun or familiar noun phrase provides a pointer to a nonlinguistic conceptual system, and it is in that system that the meaning of a sentence is constructed. (40 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Lexical access for concrete and abstract words.

Three experiments with 48 undergraduates compared the speed and accuracy of lexical decisions for concrete and abstract nouns. Results of Exp I, in which separate groups of Ss judged each word type, and of Exp II, in which all Ss judged mixed blocks of both word types, indicate that there was a small speed advantage for concrete nouns in lexical decision. To observe transfer effects from one word type to the other, all Ss in Exp III made judgments within blocked presentations of each word type. Findings show that when blocks of abstract words followed blocks of concrete words, judgments for the abstract words were significantly longer than those for concrete words. When concrete blocks followed abstract blocks, however, there was no difference in response time for the 2 word types. It is concluded that the effect of concreteness in lexical decision appears to be critically sensitive to order of presentation. Implications for models of common vs dual representation in lexical memory are discussed. (56 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Lexical and message-level sentence context effects on fixation times in reading.

Readers' eye movements were recorded as they read an unambiguous noun in a sentence context. In Exp 1, fixation durations on a target noun were shorter when it was embedded in context containing a subject noun and a verb that were weakly related to the target than when either content word was replaced with a more neutral word. These results were not affected by changes in the syntactic relations between the content words. In Exp 2, the semantic relations between the message-level representation of the sentence and the target word were altered whereas the lexical content was held constant. Fixation time on the target word was shorter when the context was semantically related to the target word than when it was unrelated. Intralexical priming effects between the subject noun and the verb were also observed. Results suggest that both lexical and message-level representations can influence the access of an individual lexical item in a sentence context. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)