Mixed case and masking interact in word recognition

Hochhaus, Larry; Williams, Eric I.; Polk, Kevin Lee

doi:10.3758/bf03329884

Cited by 2 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…Each six-letter word or nonword contained three lowercase and three uppercase letters. The use of mixed-case presentation typically makes word recognition more difficult (Coltheart & Freeman, 1974; Hochhaus, Williams, & Polk, 1989) and reduces but does not eliminate the word-superiority effect (Bruder, 1978; McNamara, Ward, & Juola, 1978; Mewhort & Johns, 1988; Pollatsek et al, 1975; but see McClelland, 1976, who found no reduction). Sanocki (1988) found that mixed-font presentation reduced letter recognition, but Adams (1979) found no decrease in the word advantage on accuracy of report following a brief backward masked presentation when radically different type fonts were mixed.…”

Section: Experiments 1–3mentioning

confidence: 99%

Detection of letter repetition in words and nonwords: The effect of opposite-case distractors.

Krueger¹,

Stadtlander²

1991

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Perfor

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This study tested whether it is the repetition of the letter's name and not its shape that is detected faster in a word than in a nonword (Krueger, 1989). Ss judged whether the same letter shape or the same letter name was repeated in a 6-letter word or nonword. When the shape was repeated, the word advantage was nearly as large (about 50 ms) when Ss looked for a physical match as when they looked for a name match. When the 2 repeated letters differed in case, however, the word advantage was very large (208 ms) when Ss looked for a name match and were thus rewarded for nonvisual coding, but the advantage vanished ((-35)-ms word deficit) when Ss looked for a physical match and were thus penalized for nonvisual coding. This indicates that letter names are much more accessible in words than in nonwords, and that words are primarily encoded nonvisually.

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