Perceptual interactions in two-word displays: Familiarity and similarity effects.

Previous studies have demonstrated the existence of perceptual interactions in the processing of 2-word displays such as SAND LANE. Four experiments were conducted with 99 undergraduates to study the role of familiarity and similarity of the stimuli on these interactions. Exp I examined whether migration errors, and the effect of surround similarity on these errors depend on the fact that the migrating letters fit together with the surround in which they occur to form familiar higher order units. Exp II replicated the results of Exp I using a slightly different paradigm. Exp III examined the role of lexicality, independent of orthographic regularity, by comparing word stimuli to orthographically regular nonword stimuli, and Exp IV examined the role of physical, as opposed to abstract, similarity of the stimuli. Overall findings indicate that when postcued to report 1 of the 2 words, Ss often made migration errors, in that the report of the specified word included a letter of the other word (e.g., LAND or SANE instead of SAND). Migrations depended on the abstract, structural similarity of the strings, but not on the physical similarity; on whether the strings were words; and on whether the possible migration responses were words. Results reveal that migration errors could not be attributed to a guessing strategy. Findings are interpreted in terms of models in which both strings simultaneously access high-level structural knowledge about what sequences of letters fit together to form familiar wholes. (50 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)