Word Perception: Cues Aiding Structure Detection

Color Cues in Word Perception

“…While previous data (Knafle, 1973) showed that enhancement of pattern similarities with color or underlining cues was effective in facilitating structure detection (e.g., an in can, it in hit), the present Task 2 data revealed that, so far as single letters were concerned, enhancement with color cues was effective with first letters, (see Figure 2) However, for Grade 2, color cues in the last letter position were utilized almost as much as cues which appeared in the first letter position. It would appear that color cues would be most effectively used when they are placed in the first letter position, and, to a lesser degree in the last letter position, especially when we consider that trigram relationships are typically taught in the beginning stages of reading development.…”

“…As described in the original experiment (Knafle, 1973), the 30 CVC trigrams were taken from Readers 1, 2, and 3 of the Merrill Linguistic Readers. (Fries et ah, 1966) The 10 stimulus words were selected so that the initial consonants were different, (see Table 1) One type of response choice consisted of words with the same medial vowels and final consonants as the stimulus words; consequently those responses rhymed with the stimulus words.…”

“…The research most relevant to the present study is that of Marchbanks and Levin (1965), Williams, Blumberg, and Williams (1970), and Knafle (1973). Marchbanks and Levin (1965) and Williams, Blumberg, and Williams (1970) used delayed matching-to-sample tasks with nonsense trigrams and quingrams.…”

“…In two experimental tasks, Knafle (1973) found that color and underlining cues in CVC stimulus words aided kindergarten to third grade subjects in detecting structure in words. In a visual matching-to-sample task, when the pattern letters of each stimulus word were in red or underlined (e.g., at in mat, ip in sip), first, second, and third grade subjects' tendency to match according to rhyme was increased, and kindergarten subjects' tendency to match according to first letters was decreased.…”

“…A review of the literature is provided by Otto and Askov (1968). The present study attempts to investigate the use of color as a cue in single letter positions, therefore extending the research of Marchbanks and Levin (1965), Williams, Blumberg, and Williams (1970), and Knafle (1973). .…”