Vexierversuch: The log relationship between word-frequency and recognition obtained in the absence of stimulus words.

Goldiamond, Israel; Hawkins, William F.

doi:10.1037/h0043051

Cited by 137 publications

(98 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…One account of this interaction is that the result may simply be due to "guessing" or response bias. When the words became extremely degraded, such as at the 30% degradation level, subjects may be more likely to guess high-frequency words than low-frequency words in making a response (see Goldiamond and Hawkins, 1958;Luce, 1986). This hypothesis is supported by the observation that there is little difference in performance between high-and low-frequency words at the 10% and 20% levels, but a much larger difference at the 30% level.…”

Section: B Results and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Some effects of talker variability on spoken word recognition

Mullennix

Pisoni

Martin

1989

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America

417

322

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The perceptual consequences of trial-to-trial changes in the voice of the talker on spoken word recognition were examined. The results from a series of experiments using perceptual identification and naming tasks demonstrated that perceptual performance decreases when the voice of the talker changes from trial to trial compared to performance when the voice on each trial remains the same. In addition, the effects of talker variability on word recognition appeared to be more robust and less dependent on task than the effects of word frequency and lexical structure. Possible hypotheses regarding the nature of the processes giving rise to these effects are discussed, with particular attention to the idea that the processing of information about the talker's voice is intimately related to early perceptual processes that extract acoustic-phonetic information from the speech signal.

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Section: B Results and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Some effects of talker variability on spoken word recognition

Mullennix

Pisoni

Martin

1989

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America

417

322

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…But central perceptual bias theory is also insufficient. It will not, for example, account for the results of Goldiamond and Hawkins (1958) when "blurs" replace verbal stimuli; nor will it account for the microgenesis effects obtained by Haber, Hershenson et al …”

Section: Central Perceptual Biasmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The strongest statement of the "spew hypothesis" in this context appeared in a paper by Goldiamond and Hawkins (1958). Their experiment, in which psuedorecognition was measured (formless blurs being flashes tachistoscopically), yielded the familiar threshold/frequency function for nonsense words given differential amounts of pretest practice.…”

Section: Peripheral Response Biasmentioning

confidence: 99%

Salience of the word as a unit in the perception of language

Osgood

Hoosain

1974

Perception & Psychophysics

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Seven interlocking experiments are reported in which both guessing and recognition thresholds for words are compared with those for other linguistic units both smaller than (nonword morphemes and trigrams) and larger than (nominal compounds, ordinary noun phrases, and nonsense compounds) the word. Thresholds were consistently lower for words than for morphemes or trigrams (matched or even much higher in visual usage frequency) and lower for word-like nominal compounds (e.g., stumbling block) than for ordinary noun phrases (copper block) or nonsense compounds (sympathy block). Prior exposure (through two correct recognitions) to ordinary noun phrases, nonsense compounds, and the constituent single words of nominal compounds significantly facilitated subsequent recognition of the single-word constituents, but prior exposure to nominal compounds had no effect whatsoever on subsequent recognition of their single-word constituents. These results as a whole are interpreted as supporting the following conclusions: (l) that the word has special salience in the perception of language; (2) that the reason for this salience is the unique meaningfulness of the word (or the word-like nominal compound) as a whole; and (3) that the mechanism for this salience is the convergence of feedback from central mediational processes with feed-forward from peripheral sensory processes upon the integration of word-form percepts.The first author (Osgood, 1963, and elsewhere) has argued that the word has special status as a psycholinguistic unit, being simultaneously the largest characteristic unit at the meaningless sensory integration level and the smallest characteristic unit at the meaningful representational level. For language perception, the word meets the requirements for sensory integration as a closure mechanism-redundancy of the same sensory "whole" in the Gestalt sense, relatively high frequency of occurrence, and temporal duration well within the limits of cell-assembly reverberation (cf. Hebb, 1949). For language understanding, the word is the smallest meaningful unit that accepts almost unlimited insertions at its boundaries (cf. Greenberg's essay on the linguistic definition of the word, 1957) and hence can combine with other words to form an infmite variety of sentences.Many experiments with the tachistoscope have testified empirically to an inverse relation between frequency of usage of words and their duration thresholds for recognition (e.g., Howes & Solomon, 1951; Solomon & Postman, 1952;King-Ellison & Jenkins, 1954;Postman & Rosenzweig, 1957). This relation holds when the frequencies of usage are for word forms, usually as determined from Thorndike-Lorge tables, independent of their multiple senses or meanings. At the level of sensory integration, the word is thus an empty or meaningless form, capable of multiple semantic codings depending upon linguistic context.There are other identifiable units in the surface forms of printed language, both larger and smaller than the word. Larger units include sentences, clauses...

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“…Since the study of Goldiamond and Hawkins (1958) the explanation of these phenomena in terms of response probabilities has been widely accepted. The latter interpretation, however, does not rule out the possibility of genuine perceptual effects resulting from implicit sets (Dember, 1960).…”

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confidence: 99%

The word-frequency effect and incongruity perception: Methodological artifacts?

Kempen

Hermans

Klinkum

et al. 1969

Perception & Psychophysics

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Two experimental results often reported in support of perceptual interpretations concerning the influence of set on perception are critically examined: (a) the relation between word frequency and recognition threshold, and (b) the so-called compromise reactions between set and stimulus, Alter elimination of certain methodological artifacts (e.g., introduction of a temporal forced-choice method instead of the ascending-limits method), both phenomena disappear; the influence of set on perception appears to be wholly a matter of response bias. Howes and Solomon (1951) and Solomon and Postman (1952) found high negative correlations between frequency and recognition threshold of English words and nonsense syllables. Bruner and Postman (1949) obtained much higher thresholds for incongruous playing cards (e.g., red spades) than for normal cards (e.g., black spades).Since the study of Goldiamond and Hawkins (1958) the explanation of these phenomena in terms of response probabilities has been widely accepted. The latter interpretation, however, does not rule out the possibility of genuine perceptual effects resulting from implicit sets (Dember, 1960). Zajonc and Nieuwenhuyse (1964) made a further test of the response bias hypothesis by introducing very stringent recognition criteria. In this experiment the negative correlation between frequency and recognition threshold decreased with increasing stringency of the criterion used (viz., pseudorecognition, one correct identification and three successive correct identifications). Nevertheless, even in the most stringent criterion condition a very reliable effect of word frequency was found.These results are complemented by the so-called compromise responses in the playing cards experiment by Bruner and Postman (1949). For instance, after presentation of (incongruous) red spades many Ss gave prerecognition answers such as "brown spades," "purple," "rusty black," "black with red edges," i.e., names of colors that might be considered mixtures of red and black.These two experimental results are repeatedly quoted in support of perceptual theories concerning set-perception interactions. In the present study it is hypothesized that they must be attributed to certain methodological artifacts.EXPERIMENT I The word frequency effect was supposed to disappear after the introduction of the following two procedural modifications: (a) a temporal forced-choice method for measuring recognition thresholds, and (b) a very strict recognition criterion (three successive correct identifications). ProcedureNonsense syllables (CVCs) of equal meaningfulness were used as stimuli. In each trial of the pre training phase, E showed one syllable to the Ss (30 undergraduate students) while asking first to spell and thereafter to pronounce it. Frequency was varied by presenting some syllables 25, 10, 5, and 2 times, respectively. For each frequency there were two syllables. Counterbalancing these syllables against frequency was not considered essential, first, since their selection was restricted by the r...

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Vexierversuch: The log relationship between word-frequency and recognition obtained in the absence of stimulus words.

Cited by 137 publications

References 17 publications

Some effects of talker variability on spoken word recognition

Some effects of talker variability on spoken word recognition

Salience of the word as a unit in the perception of language

The word-frequency effect and incongruity perception: Methodological artifacts?

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