| Abstract: | In 5 experiments with a total of 32 Ss, exterior letter pairs from 4-letter words (e.g., d??k from dark) were presented in pattern-postmasked displays, in the positions they would occupy if the whole word were shown. In Exp 1, letter pairs (d??k) were reported more accurately than single letters (d) (the pair–letter effect). In Exps 2 and 3, performances with letter pairs dropped to those for single letters when each letter in a pair was masked individually or when masks were much wider than letter pairs. In Exps 4 and 5, the pair–letter effect and mask influence were both removed when one letter in each pair was replaced by a number sign (d??#) or when letter pairs were not the exterior letters of real words (e.g., y??f). These findings suggest that the exterior letter combinations of words are represented psychologically and access to these representations is affected by mask configuration. Implications for current word-recognition models are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) |
