Some tests of the interactive-activation model for word identification

Mewhort, D. J. K.; Johns, Elizabeth E.

doi:10.1007/bf00310174

Cited by 38 publications

(36 citation statements)

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“…This suggests that at the earlier stages of processing, words' and nonwords' sublexical features are computed analogously. This conclusion qualifies in one important respect the claim put forward by Mewhort and Johns (1988) and reported above. According to these authors, the WSE depends, at least in part, on information at the feature level.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 87%

“…In particular, while visual and spatial factors should affect processing at the first and second stages of analysis, respectively, linguistic variables should become relevant only at later stages, when visual shapes are recognized as letters and their identity is computed. So, according to this view, at the early visual coding stages words and nonwords are processed analogously, and, therefore, a WSE can originate only after letter shapes have been computed-that is, when graphemes are recovered.Recently, Mewhort and Johns (1988) have proposed that word activation is not based on the activation of letter units alone, but that it depends, at least in part, on information at the feature level. So, according to these authors, the WSE originates at the feature extraction stage, even if, 433…”

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confidence: 99%

“…Recently, Mewhort and Johns (1988) have proposed that word activation is not based on the activation of letter units alone, but that it depends, at least in part, on information at the feature level. So, according to these authors, the WSE originates at the feature extraction stage, even if, 433…”

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confidence: 99%

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Lack of word-superiority effect in processing letter features

Peressotti

Job

1993

Bull. Psychon. Soc.

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Letter recognition is typically faster in words than in nonwords. In this study, we tested the word-superiority effect obtained when either subletter features or misalignment of letters had to be detected. Subjects were presented with both high-and low-frequency words and with legal and illegal nonwords. Space among the letters varied. In the regular space condition, letters within a string were separated by normal spaces; in the irregular space condition, letters were separated by normal spaces, small spaces, or large spaces. In Experiment 1, subjects were required to detect the presence of a bold segment contained in one of the letters of the string. No wordsuperiority effect was obtained. Furthermore, spacing affected neither latencies nor response accuracy. In Experiment 2, subjects were required to detect the presence of a letter misaligned with respect to the others. Again, no word-superiority effect was obtained. However, spacing affected this task, irregularly spaced strings being responded to more slowly and less accurately than regularly spaced strings. The results indicate that at the first stages of analysis, words and nonwords are similarly coded. The pattern obtained is consistent with a multistage model of word recognition in which parallel feature extraction processes are followed by a level at which spatial relationships are computed and by a third level at which abstract grapheme identity is recovered from letter shapes.Since Cattel's studies of 1886, the problem of determining which visual characteristics of a word are encoded during reading has become a central issue of cognitive psychology. The word-superiority effect (WSE)-the higher detectability of letters when they are contained in words-is a well-studied phenomenon (for a review, see Carr, 1986). Advantages of words over single letters (Johnston & McClelland, 1973;Prinzmetal, 1992) and over orthographically regular (Estes & Brunn, 1987;Solman, 1987) and irregular nonwords (Baron & Thurston, 1973;Marchetti & Mewhort, 1986;Sphoer & Smith, 1975) have been reported. The WSE over nonwords in letter detection is manifested both in latencies of letter search tasks (Krueger, 1992) and in accuracy in forcedchoice procedures (Reicher, 1969). The effect could be due either to an enhanced visual perceptibility of words (i.e., the physical characteristics of words actually provide a more perceptible stimulus) or to verbal and/or lexical factors, and hence dependent on more abstract computations.The processes involved in the analysis of visual information are often regarded as roughly hierarchical. Feature extraction processes such as edge and blob detection, texture, size, and color information are commonly thought to be computed during the initial stage of visual analysis. On the other hand, the high-level processes such as object (or word) recognition are thought of as the end product and they can no longer be considered purely visual, Correspondence should be addressed to F. Peressotti, Dipartimento di Psicologia dello Sviluppo e della Socializza...

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 87%

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confidence: 99%

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Lack of word-superiority effect in processing letter features

Peressotti

Job

1993

Bull. Psychon. Soc.

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“…Following the original IA framework, more recent models of word recognition based on cascaded processing have incorporated the word-letter interactivity assumption (e.g., Coltheart, Curtis, Atkins, & Haller, 1993;Grainger & Jacobs, 1996). However, the above account of the word superiority effect and other related findings has been questioned on both empirical and simulation grounds (Allen, Wallace, & Weber, 1995;Jacobs & Grainger, 1992;Mewhort & Johns, 1988;Paap, Newsome, McDonald, & Schvaneveldt, 1982). Hence, it remains unclear whether reading really involves interactive processes allowing activation at a higher processing level to reverberate and influence activation at a lower processing level.…”

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Is Perception a Two-Way Street? The Case of Feedback Consistency in Visual Word Recognition

Peereman

Bonin

1998

Journal of Memory and Language

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It is generally assumed that during reading, the activation produced over orthographic units feeds forward to phonological units. Supporting interactive models of word recognition, Stone, Vanhoy, and Van Orden (1997) recently claimed that phonological activation reverberates to orthographic processing units and consequently constrains orthographic encoding. They found that the consistency of the relations between phonology and orthography (feedback consistency) influenced lexical decision performance. We explored the effect in five experiments conducted with French words. Although feedback consistency affected writing performance, no significant effect was observed in lexical decision even when inconsistency was defined so as to maximize the effect. We also show that previous reports of consistency effects in French (Ziegler, Montant, & Jacobs, 1997a) may be due to a confound between consistency and word frequency, as assessed by subjective frequency estimates. We conclude that there is at present little evidence that sound-to-print consistency influences orthographic encoding in visual word recognition.

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“…More specifically, while the word advantage over single letters presented in arrays of meaningless characters (e.g., number signs, #h##; dollar signs, $h$$; ampersands, &h&&) appears to be insensitive to the type of poststimulus field employed (patterned or blank; Johnston & McClelland, 1973;Marchetti & Mewhort, 1986;Mewhort & Johns, 1988), the word advantage over isolated letters (e.g., h ) has so far been observed only when stimuli are followed by pattern masks and disappears when blank poststimulus fields are used (e.g., Johnston & McClelland, 1973;Juola, Leavitt, & Choe, 1974;Marchetti & Mewhort, 1986;Massaro & Klitzke, 1979; see also Taylor & Chabot, 1978). For example, Johnston & McClelland (1973) presented four-letter words (e.g., coin), letters in number signs (c###), and isolated letters (c ) in two backwardmasked conditions.…”

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confidence: 99%

Word superiority over isolated letters: The neglected case of forward masking

Jordan

Bevan

1994

Memory & Cognition

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Previous research shows that when briefly presented alphabetic stimuli are followed by pattern masks, letters in words are reported more accurately than are isolated letters (the "WordLetter Phenomenon," or WLP); however, when these masks are replaced by blank fields, the WLP disappears. These findings have led to the popular notion that the WLP reflects selective masking of ongoing stimulus processing and so critically depends on the use of poststimulus masks. Here we report three experiments which re-examine the role of masking in the WLP by contrasting the effects of postmasked displays with the effects of premasked displays in which words and isolated letters were preceded by a pattern mask and followed by a completely blank field. Despite the critical role generally assigned to poststimulus pattern masks, similar WLPs were obtained with pre-and postmasked displays. Implications for theories of word and letter recognition are discussed.By limiting the amount of time for which a word, nonword, or single letter is presented, information can be gained to determine which physical characteristics of words are encoded by the reader and over what time scale this encoding takes place. One particular finding in this area has maintained a considerable impact on contemporary views of word recognition since it was first reported more than twenty years ago. Using a two-alternative forced-choice procedure (generally known as the ReicherWheeler paradigm), a number of studies have shown that when alphabetic stimuli are followed by a pattern mask (composed of irregular arrangements of letter fragments or similar contours), letters in words are reported more accurately than are the same letters presented in isolation

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Some tests of the interactive-activation model for word identification

Cited by 38 publications

References 19 publications

Lack of word-superiority effect in processing letter features

Lack of word-superiority effect in processing letter features

Is Perception a Two-Way Street? The Case of Feedback Consistency in Visual Word Recognition

Word superiority over isolated letters: The neglected case of forward masking

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