Slower Perception Followed by Faster Lexical Decision in Longer Words: A Diffusion Model Analysis (original) (raw)
Related papers
Decision times in orthographic processing: a cross-linguistic study
Experimental Brain Research
Reading comparisons across transparent and opaque orthographies indicate critical differences that may reveal the mechanisms involved in orthographic decoding across orthographies. Here, we address the role of criterion and speed of processing in accounting for performance differences across languages. We used binary tasks involving orthographic (words–pseudowords), and non-orthographic materials (female–male faces), and analyzed results based on Ratcliff’s Diffusion model. In the first study, 29 English and 28 Italian university students were given a lexical decision test. English observers made more errors than Italian observers while showing generally similar reaction times. In terms of the diffusion model, the two groups differed in the decision criterion: English observers used a lower criterion. There was no overall cross-linguistic difference in processing speed, but English observers showed lower values for words (and a smaller lexicality effect) than Italians. In the second...
A diffusion model account of criterion shifts in the lexical decision task
Journal of Memory and Language, 2008
Performance in the lexical decision task is highly dependent on decision criteria. These criteria can be influenced by speed versus accuracy instructions and word/nonword proportions. Experiment 1 showed that error responses speed up relative to correct responses under instructions to respond quickly. Experiment 2 showed that responses to less probable stimuli are slower and less accurate than responses to more probable stimuli. The data from both experiments support the diffusion model for lexical decision [Ratcliff, R., Gomez, P., & McKoon, G. (2004a). A diffusion model account of the lexical decision task. Psychological Review, 111,. At the same time, the data provide evidence against the popular deadline model for lexical decision. The deadline model assumes that ''nonword'' responses are given only after the ''word'' response has timed out-consequently, the deadline model cannot account for the data from experimental conditions in which ''nonword'' responses are systematically faster than ''word'' responses.
Is there a temporal basis of the word length effect? A response to Service
2000
Service (1998) carried out a study of the word length effect with Finnish pseudowords in which short and long pseudowordswere identical except for the inclusionof certainphonemes differing only in pronunciation length, a manipulation that is impossible in English. She obtained an effect of phonemic complexity but little or no word duration effect per seÐa discrepancy from the expectations generated by the well-known working memory model of Baddeley (1986). In the present study using English words, we controlled for phonemic complexity differences by using the same words for the short- and long-word sets, but with instructions inducing shorter or longer pronunciation of the words. We obtained substantial word duration effects. Concerns raised by Service are addressed, and we conclude that both duration and complexity are likely to contribute to the word length effect in serial recall. Working memory could be de®ned as the temporarily heightened accessibility of infor-mation to be use...
Is there a temporal basis of the word length effect? A response to Service (1998)
The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology A, 2000
Service (1998) carried out a study of the word length effect with Finnish pseudowords in which short and long pseudowords were identical except for the inclusion of certain phonemes differing only in pronunciation length, a manipulation that is impossible in English. She obtained an effect of phonemic complexity but little or no word duration effect per seÐa discrepancy from the expectations generated by the well-known working memory model of Baddeley (1986). In the present study using English words, we controlled for phonemic complexity differences by using the same words for the short-and long-word sets, but with instructions inducing shorter or longer pronunciation of the words. We obtained substantial word duration effects. Concerns raised by Service are addressed, and we conclude that both duration and complexity are likely to contribute to the word length effect in serial recall.
A Diffusion Model Account of the Lexical Decision Task
Psychological Review, 2004
The diffusion model for 2-choice decisions was applied to data from lexical decision experiments in which word frequency, proportion of high-versus low-frequency words, and type of nonword were manipulated. The model gave a good account of all of the dependent variables-accuracy, correct and error response times, and their distributions-and provided a description of how the component processes involved in the lexical decision task were affected by experimental variables. All of the variables investigated affected the rate at which information was accumulated from the stimulicalled drift rate in the model. The different drift rates observed for the various classes of stimuli can all be explained by a 2-dimensional signal-detection representation of stimulus information. The authors discuss how this representation and the diffusion model's decision process might be integrated with current models of lexical access.
Use of orthographic redundancies and word identification speed in bilinguals
Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 1993
The present study aimed at evidencing some of the factors linked to word identification speed in bilinguals. The performances of beginning and of skilled bilinguals on tasks related to single-word decoding were assessed in both the first and the second lan~tage. Results of a first experiment showed that whereas both groups of bilinguals demonstrated use of orthographic redundancies specific to their native language, only the skilled group did so as concerns second-language redundancies. It was seen in a second experiment, however, that the use or nonuse of orthographic structure cannot in itself account for the pattern of lexical decision latencies observed for words in the two languages. Rather, this pattern is consistent with the idea that word recognition latency is largely dependent upon subjects" past experience with and actual use of words.
Effects of speed of word processing on semantic access: The case of bilingualism
Bilingual speakers generally manifest slower word recognition than monolinguals. We investigated the consequences of the word processing speed on semantic access in bilinguals. The paradigm involved a stream of English words and pseudowords presented in succession at a constant rate. English–Welsh bilinguals and English monolinguals were asked to count the number of letters in pseudowords and actively disregard words. They were not explicitly told that pairs of words in immediate succession were embedded and could either be semantically related or not. We expected that slower word processing in bilinguals would result in semantic access indexed by semantic priming. As expected, bilinguals showed significant semantic priming, indexed by an N400 modulation, whilst monolinguals did not. Moreover, bilinguals were slower in performing the task. The results suggest that bilinguals cannot discriminate between pseudowords and words without accessing semantic information whereas monolinguals can dismiss English words on the basis of subsemantic information.
The time-based word length effect and stimulus set specificity
Psychonomic bulletin & review, 2003
The word length effect is the finding that short items are remembered better than long items on immediate serial recall tests. The time-based word length effect refers to this finding when the lists comprise items that vary only in pronunciation time. Three experiments compared recall of three different sets of disyllabic words that differed systematically only in spoken duration. One set showed a word length effect, one set showed no effect of word length, and the third showed a reverse word length effect, with long words recalled better than short. A new fourth set of words was created, and it also failed to yield a time-based word length effect. Because all four experiments used the same methodologyand varied only the stimulus sets, it is argued that the time-based word length effect is not robust and as such poses problems for models based on the phonological loop.
Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 2006
In the present study, we reexamined the effect of the number of letters in lexical decision. We used the English Lexicon Project based on a large data set of over 40,481 words (Balota, Cortese, Hutchison, Neely, Nelson, Simpson, & Treiman, 2002). We performed simultaneous multiple regression analyses based on a selection of 33,006 English words (ranging from 3 to 13 letters). Our analyses revealed an unexpected pattern of results taking the form of a U-shape curve. The effect of number of letters was facilitatory for words of 3 to 5 letters, null for words of 5 to 8 letters and inhibitory for words of 8 to 13 letters. We also showed that printed frequency, number of syllables and number of orthographic neighbors all made independent contributions. The length effects were replicated in a new analysis of a subset of 3,833 monomorphemic nouns (ranging from 3 to 10 letters), and also in another analysis based on 12,987 bisyllabic items (ranging from 3 to 9 letters). These effects were independent of printed frequency, number of syllables, and number of orthographic neighbors. Furthermore, we also observed robust linear inhibitory effects of number of syllables. Implications for models of Visual Word Recognition are discussed.