Knowledge of word length does not constrain word identification

Use of word length for word identification was examined in three naming experiments and one sentence reading experiment in which a foveally presented cue either matched or mismatched the length of a subsequently presented target word. Properties of the target were also manipulated so that it was eit...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Psychological research 2003-02, Vol.67 (1), p.1-9
Main Authors: Inhoff, Albrecht W, Eiter, Brianna M
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Analysis of Variance
Cues
Experiments
Humans
Hypotheses
Knowledge
Pattern Recognition, Visual
Reaction Time
Reading
Vocabulary development
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Summary:Use of word length for word identification was examined in three naming experiments and one sentence reading experiment in which a foveally presented cue either matched or mismatched the length of a subsequently presented target word. Properties of the target were also manipulated so that it was either a high- or low-frequency word or so that its exterior letters were either consistent with a large or small pool of candidate words. The experiments converged in showing that effects of prior word length cuing were either negligible or absent. The word frequency of the target influenced its recognition but not the lexical constraint of its exterior letters. Importantly, effects of target word properties did not interact with effects of prior target length cuing. Together, these results indicate that knowledge of a word's spatial properties does not constrain its lexical processing.
ISSN:0340-0727
1430-2772
DOI:10.1007/s00426-002-0095-4