Normative data on the familiarity and difficulty of 196 Spanish word fragments

In this article, normative data on the familiarity and difficulty of 196 single-solution Spanish word fragments are presented. The database includes the following indices: difficulty, familiarity, frequency, number of meanings, number of letters given in the fragment, first and/or last letters given, and ratio of letters to blanks. A factor analysis was performed on difficulty, and two factors were obtained. Frequency, familiarity, and number of meanings loaded highly on the first factor, which we consider to measure lexical processes, whereas number of letters in the fragment, first and/or last letters given, and ratio of letters to blanks loaded highly on the second factor, which we judge to be determined by perceptual information. Regression analyses using factor scores as predictors showed that both factors accounted for a significant part of the completion probability scores. The full set of these norms may be downloaded from the Psychonomic Society Web archive atwww.psychonomic.org/archive/.     

Difficulty and familiarity norms for 192 single-solution word fragments

Normative data are presented for the probability of successfully completing 192 single-solution word fragments. Normative data on the familiarity of college students with the solution words are also given, along with estimates of word frequency from existing norms. Regression analyses were performed in order to predict fragment completion difficulty from familiarity, frequency, and several structural characteristics of the fragments. Familiarity, whether or not first and/or last letters appeared in the fragment, and the ratio of letters to missing letters in the fragment were included in the regression equation as significant predictors of difficulty for this fragment set.     

Priming index of the Spanish word fragments from the Dasí, Soler,and Ruiz (2004) database

Word-fragment completion is a frequently used test in implicit memory research. A database of 196 Spanish fragments was recently published (Dasí, Soler, & Ruiz, 2004) in which the fragments were described for indices, such as difficulty, familiarity, frequency, number of meanings, and so on (www.psychonomic.org/archive). In this work, a new index, the priming index, is described for the same 196 fragments. This index is calculated for each fragment by subtracting the difficulty index (the proportion of correct completion when the fragment is not studied) from the proportion of correct completion when the fragment is studied, and it means the capacity of an item to be primed. In order to determine whether the new index performs well, we have replicated some important experimental effects, such as priming, frequency, and difficulty. We consider that this index can help researchers to better select stimuli for fragment-completion tasks.     

Swedish norms for completion of word stems and unique word fragments

Swedish norms for completion of word stems and single-solution word fragments, with few or many letters specified, were obtained from Swedish students. Comparisons were made for completion rates between stems and fragments that were possible to complete with the same word. As expected, completion rates for fragments were generally superior to those of word stems since the word stems allowed alternative completions. Adding one letter to the word stems and fragments resulted in a significant increase in the probability of completion, for both stems and fragments. A stepwise regression analysis was conducted in order to partial out factors determining the completion probability for fragments. The ratio of specified letters to blank characters, and the familiarity of the solution was found to be the most important factors. Finally, the effect of number of given letters in the word stem on the number of generated words per stem was studied. The mean number of words generated per stem was found to be equal for both two- and three-letter word stems.     

How do readers know where to look next? Local information distributions influence eye fixations

Skilled readers' eye movements were recorded as they inspected sentences in preparation for comprehension questions. The sentences were written around target words that had uneven distributions of information, in that the words were predictable, given either the first few letters or the last few letters. Some parts of these words can be described as being more important than others for successful word recognition, and the experiments asked whether inspection patterns reflect the uneven distributions. Four types of ten-letter word were used: words with highly redundant endings (e.g. engagement), with moderately redundant endings (e.g. repatriate), with moderately redundant beginnings (e.g. superstore), and words with informative beginnings and endings (e.g. amalgamate). Redundancy was defined operationally in terms of the number of possible completions of a word given the first few or last few letters. A highly redundant ending is therefore one that occurs frequently and cannot be used to identify the word.

Words gaining just one fixation received this fixation nearer to the word's centre than in the case of the first fixation upon words gaining two fixations. The single fixation also had a longer duration, giving support to the notion of a convenient viewing location, which, when achieved, can lead to a net saving in inspection time. In the case of words with redundant endings gaining just one fixation, the fixation was nearer to the beginning of the word than in the case of words with informative endings, and this influence of word type upon the location of the first fixation was interpreted in favour of the parafoveal processing hypothesis of eye guidance during reading.     

Cognitive and linguistic factors affect visual feature integration

Five experiments investigated the influence of cognitive and linguistic factors on the integration of color and letter-shape information. Subjects were briefly presented strings of colored letters that varied in pronounceability and familiarity. Detection and search tasks required subjects to identify the color of predesignated target letters. It was proposed that errors in integrating color and shape would be less likely with items from different perceptual units than from items within the same perceptual unit. If words, at some level of perceptual analysis, are processed as units whereas nonwords are processed by individual letters, then there should be more letter-shape and color feature integration errors with words than with nonwords. The first two experiments tested this prediction by comparing feature integration errors with words and nonwords. The remaining experiments manipulated letter-string pronounceability, familiarity, and the presence of vowels to isolate the factors that may influence feature integration. The results demonstrate that cognitive and linguistic factors, such as familiarity and pronounceability, can influence the combination of colors and shapes in perception.     

Selecting trainee conference interpreters: A preliminary study

This study developed and assessed a set of psychometric tests to aid selection of candidate simultaneous and consecutive interpreter trainees. Three kinds of test were used based either on text materials, linguistic subskills or speed stress Twelve tests in all were administered to 29 trainees beginning an intensive course. The test scores were correlated with judges' ratings in the final interpreting examination. Students who passed the examination had higher mean scores on all tests than those who failed (significant for seven tests). Test scores were positively inter-correlated. Of the two factors characterizing the pattern of correlations, the first loaded highly on completion/detection tests and simultaneous examination ratings; the second loaded highly on recall tests and consecutive examination ratings. Text-based tests were more predictive than subskills or speed stress tests. It is concluded that tests would aid candidate selection, and estimates of improved selection are given. The relationship between test type and interpreting is discussed together with possible reasons underlying differential performance on tests of the same kind.     

Word reading and picture naming in Italian

Results from two separate norming studies of lexical access in Italian were merged, permitting a comparison of word-reading and picture-naming latencies and the factors that predict each one for an overlapping subsample of 128 common nouns. Factor analysis of shared lexical predictors yielded four latent variables: a frequency factor, a semantic factor, a length factor, and a final factor dominated by frication on the initial phoneme. Age of acquisition (AoA) loaded highly on the first two factors, suggesting that it can be split into separate sources of variance. Regression analyses using factor scores as predictors showed that word reading and picture naming are both influenced by the frequency/AoA factor. The semantics/AoA factor influenced only picture naming, whereas the length and frication factors influenced only word reading. Generalizability of these results to other languages is discussed, including potential effects of cross-language differences in orthographic transparency.     

Three last letters identify most female first names

The last spelled letter often indicates the sex of first names. Most female names end with the last letter a, e, or i. Female names are distinctive and therefore easy to identify because of the small number of predominantly female endings. Most male names end with one of 19 last letters. Two last letters, h and y, occur with similar frequency for both sexes. The cultural tradition of higher status for men contributes to the avoidance of predominantly female last letters for male names. A female name with a predominantly male last letter therefore occurs more often than a male name with a predominantly female last letter. The findings were obtained from the 500 most frequent first names given to males and females in Pennsylvania in 1990.     

Referential processing: Reciprocity and correlates of naming and imaging

To shed light on the referential processes that underlie mental translation between representations of objects and words, we studied the reciprocity and determinants of naming and imaging reaction times (RT). Ninety-six subjects pressed a key when they had covertly named 248 pictures or imaged to their names. Mean naming and imagery RTs for each item were correlated with one another, and with properties of names, images, and their interconnections suggested by prior research and dual coding theory. Imagery RTs correlated .56 (df = 246) with manual naming RTs and .58 with voicekey naming RTs from prior studies. A factor analysis of the RTs and of 31 item characteristics revealed 7 dimensions. Imagery and naming RTs loaded on a common referential factor that included variables related to both directions of processing (e.g., missing names and missing images). Naming RTs also loaded on a nonverbal-to-verbal factor that included such variables as number of different names, whereas imagery RTs loaded on a verbal-to-nonverbal factor that included such variables as rated consistency of imagery. The other factors were verbal familiarity, verbal complexity, nonverbal familiarity, and nonverbal complexity. The findings confirm the reciprocity of imaging and naming, and their relation to constructs associated with distinct phases of referential processing.     

Order of report and processing in tachistoscopic recognition

Two groups of 12 Ss were shown tachistoscopically 4 letters and 4 numbers. Within these alpha-numeric sequences, three variables were systematically manipulated: grouping of items, initial item, and familiarity of the letter sequences. One group of Ss reported first letters then numbers from each sequence; the other group reported numbers then letters. The results indicated that grouping, redundancy, and order of report had significant effects on letter accuracy but not on number accuracy. These effects were interpreted in terms of processing, particularly the use of spatial and identity information during recognition.     

Order information in multiple-element comparison

Although it is possible to specify the elements of a list without regard to the order in which they appear, the same distinction may not be possible when the elements are retrieved from memory. To investigate this issue, we used a recognition task in which two strings of letters are presented sequentially. Subjects were instructed to respond "Same" if the second string contained the same elements as the first, regardless of their position, and to respond "Different" otherwise. Despite the fact that order information is irrelevant in this task, we observed in two experiments that reaction time for Same-item trials increased with the number of positions that the letters were displaced. Neither familiarity of the first string nor the delay between strings changed in the size of this displacement effect. To account for this finding, we propose a model in which comparison time for a given letter pair increases with the position difference of the elements in their respective strings.     

熟悉性对汉语隐喻义与本义加工机制的影响

采用句子违反范式考察汉语隐喻义与本义加工机制的差异及隐喻熟悉性的调节作用。要求被试阅读不同熟悉性的隐喻和本义句子并判断句子正确性,记录其行为与脑电反应。结果显示,熟悉句子隐喻义的加工显著快于本义的加工,而新奇句子则本义的加工更快;脑电水平上,对于熟悉句子,隐喻义违反比本义违反诱发增强的N400和降低的P600效应,而对于新奇句子,隐喻义和本义违反诱发出基本类似的ERP反应。这些结果表明隐喻义和本义加工存在差异,熟悉性显著影响隐喻义的加工,这种影响在较早语义分析和较晚的语义整合阶段均有体现。     

Deviant sexual arousal,offense history,and demographic variables as predictors of reoffense among child molesters

The present study examined selected demographic and offense history variables and deviant sexual arousal as predictors of reoffense in a group of 35 untreated child molesters. The measure of deviant sexual arousal was based on laboratory measures of sexual preference using penile plethysmography. Factor analysis of the predictor variables yielded three factors. The measure of deviant arousal, the amount of force used in the offense, whether or not the offender had intercourse with the child victim, and the number of previous victims loaded on the first factor, called Sexual Deviance. IQ and socioeconomic status loaded on the second factor, called Social Status. Age of the offender and age of the victim loaded on the third factor, called Offender Age. Entering the sets of three factor scores as predictors in a multiple correlation, over 20% of the variance in recidivism was explained, but the factor Sexual Deviance was the only significant predictor of recidivism (p < .02). Almost 30% of the variance in number of reoffenses was explained, and both Sexual Deviance (p < .01) and Social Status (p < .10) were significant predictors. A cluster analysis identified a group of offenders characterized by low SES and low IQ who also showed higher sexual deviance scores and a high rate of reoffense.     

Word-fragment cuing: the lexical search hypothesis

In four experiments we evaluated aspects of the hypothesis that word-fragment completion depends on the results of lexical but not semantic search. Experiment 1 showed that the number of meaningful associates linked to a studied word does not affect its recovery when the test cue consists of letters and spaces for missing letters. Experiments 2 and 3 showed retroactive interference effects in fragment completion when words in a second list were lexically related to words in a first list but not when the words in the second list were meaningfully related. Experiment 4 indicated that for studied words, instructions to search at the word level facilitated completion performance and that instructions to generate letters to fill missing spaces had no effect. Other findings indicated that completion was affected by the number of words lexically related to the fragment and by the number of letters missing from the fragment. In general, experimental manipulations that focused on lexical characteristics were effective, and those that focused on semantic characteristics were ineffective. The findings support the conclusion that word fragments engender a lexical search process that does not depend on retrieving encoded meaning.     

Imagery,concreteness, age-of-acquisition,familiarity, and meaningfulness values for 205 five-letter words having single-solution anagrams

Solution-word imagery appears to affect difficulty of anagram solving. To assist research in this area, we present imagery, concreteness, age-of-acquisition, familiarity, and meaningfulness values for 205 five-letter words known to form single-solution anagrams. None of the words have repeated letters. Intergroup reliabilities were satisfactory on all attributes. Significant correlations were found with previous word lists and the intercorrelations between dimensions matched previous findings.     

不同文章难度条件下文化特征类型熟悉度对阅读理解的影响

该研究考察了非英语专业具有不同英语语言水平学习者在不同难度条件下两种文化特征熟悉度对阅读理解的影响。研究发现：（1）语言水平高,或对材料背景熟悉的学习者可通过调用熟悉的文化背景知识帮助阅读理解,其得分均高于低水平,或对材料不熟悉的学习者;（2）在熟悉的文化背景条件下,当材料难度与学习者语言水平基本一致时,语言水平低的学习者也可较好地运用熟悉的文化背景知识帮助阅读理解。实验结果表明：文化特征的内容熟悉度和英语语言水平（或文章难度）对阅读理解起着重要作用,语言水平越高,作用越大。     

Modeling the impact of test anxiety and test familiarity on the criterion-related validity of cognitive ability tests

The assessment of cognitive abilities, whether it is for purposes of basic research or applied decision making, is potentially susceptible to both facilitating and debilitating influences. However, relatively little research has examined the degree to which these factors might moderate the criterion-related validity of cognitive ability tests. To address this gap, we use Classical Test Theory formulas to articulate how test anxiety and test familiarity can influence observed scores, observed score variance, and most importantly, the criterion-related validity of observed scores. The resulting equations reveal that understanding the influence of test anxiety and test familiarity on criterion-related validity coefficients requires the consideration of a number of additional parameters. To elucidate the implications of the model, we present a Monte Carlo simulation. Results show that anxiety and familiarity can have a significant negative effect on the observed criterion-related validity, but also show that this effect is highly variable. In particular, the effect depends heavily upon the relation between these factors and the criterion variable. Additionally, we note that the equations we develop highlight important gaps in the literature; there are few clear empirical estimates of several of the parameters in our formulas. We call for future research to better examine these additional relations.     

Recognition without identification

The ability of people to recognize words that they could not identify was examined. After studying a list of 15 words, participants completed a word fragment test consisting of 4-letter fragments of both studied and nonstudied words. Whether they were able to solve a particular fragment or not, participants then made an episodic recognition judgment. Even when participants were unable to solve a fragment, their recognition accuracy was significantly higher than chance. This effect was significant when list length was increased, when 2-letter fragments were used, when first letters were excluded from fragments, and when the letter casing and the presentation modality were changed from study to test. It also occurred when participants attempted to identify fragments at study and rated words at test. Recognition without identification is attributed to the use of orthographic information when determining the familiarity of a test item.