Phonology as the source of syllable frequency effects in visual word recognition: Evidence from French

In order to investigate whether syllable frequency effects in visual word recognition can be attributed to phonologically or orthographically defined syllables, we designed one experiment that allowed six critical comparisons. Whereas only a weak effect was obtained when both orthographic and phonological syllable frequency were conjointly manipulated in Comparison 1, robust effects for phonological and null effects for orthographic syllable frequency were found in Comparisons 2 and 3. Comparisons 4 and 5 showed that the syllable frequency effect does not result from a confound with the frequency of letter or phoneme clusters at the beginning of words. The syllable frequency effect was shown to diminish with increasing word frequency in Comparison 6. These results suggest that visually presented polysyllabic words are parsed into phonologically defined syllables during visual word recognition. Materials and links may be accessed at www.psychonomic.org/archive.     

Age-of-acquisition effects in reading aloud: Tests of cumulative frequency and frequency trajectory

Several studies have reported that the age at which a word is learned affects skilled reading. This age-of-acquisition effect is potentially important for theories of reading and learning. The effect has been difficult to pin down, however, because the age at which a word is learned is correlated with many other lexical properties. Zevin and Seidenberg (2002) analyzed these phenomena, using connectionist models that distinguished between cumulative frequency (the total number of times a word is experienced) and frequency trajectory (the distribution of these experiences over time). The models prompted a reevaluation of the empirical literature on this topic. The present research tested and confirmed three behavioral predictions derived from these models. First, cumulative frequency has an impact on skilled word naming, more so than standard measures of frequency derived from such norms as those of Kucera and Francis (1967). Second, frequency trajectory affects age of acquisition: The timing of exposure to words affects how rapidly they are learned. However, frequency trajectory does not affect skilled reading aloud, because the consistencies in mapping between spelling and sound eventually wash out the effects of early differences in frequency of exposure. Thus, in skilled performance, the timing of exposure to words is less important than the amount of exposure. The results clarify the conditions under which age-dependent learning effects occur in reading aloud.     

Modeling lexical decision: the form of frequency and diversity effects

What is the root cause of word frequency effects on lexical decision times? W. S. Murray and K. I. Forster (2004) argued that such effects are linear in rank frequency, consistent with a serial search model of lexical access. In this article, the authors (a) describe a method of testing models of such effects that takes into account the possibility of parametric overfitting; (b) illustrate the effect of corpus choice on estimates of rank frequency; (c) give derivations of nine functional forms as predictions of models of lexical decision; (d) detail the assessment of these models and the rank model against existing data regarding the functional form of frequency effects; and (e) report further assessments using contextual diversity, a factor confounded with word frequency. The relationship between the occurrence distribution of words and lexical decision latencies to those words does not appear compatible with the rank hypothesis, undermining the case for serial search models of lexical access. Three transformations of contextual diversity based on extensions of instance models do, however, remain as plausible explanations of the effect.     

Syllables and morphemes: contrasting frequency effects in Spanish

Three types of sublexical units were studied in Spanish visual word recognition: the syllable, the basic orthographic syllabic structure (BOSS), and the root morpheme. In Experiment 1, using a lexical-decision task, a typical inhibitory effect of the first-syllable frequency was found (while keeping constant the BOSS frequency) as well as the word-frequency effect. Experiment 2 examined the role of both the BOSS frequency and the word frequency, also in a lexical-decision task. Syllable frequency was controlled. Both the BOSS frequency and the word frequency showed facilitatory effects. However, in Experiments 3A and 3B, a facilitatory effect of the root frequency (when controlling for BOSS frequency) and a null effect of BOSS frequency (when controlling for root frequency) were found, suggesting that the BOSS effect is in fact reflecting a morpheme effect. A review of the current models shows that it is difficult to integrate syllables and morphemes in a unique model.     

Self‐Handicapping: On the Self‐Perpetuating Nature of Defensive Behavior

The term self‐handicapping was introduced by Jones and Berglas (1978 ) to refer to the creation of barriers to successful performance for the purpose of controlling attributions about the self. In the event of failure, attributions to lack of ability are diminished or discounted because of the handicap and, in the event of success, attributions to ability are enhanced or augmented because of the handicap. This article reviews over 25 years of research on self‐handicapping. A process model is presented in which individual differences in goals and concerns dynamically interact with situational threats to elicit self‐handicapping behavior which produces consequences that perpetuate the use of the behavior in future situations.     

Vibrotactile frequency recognition: forward and backward masking effects

Forward and backward vibrotactile recognition masking was investigated in 4 subjects with 240-Hz and 160-Hz targets of 20 ms duration and four 200-Hz masks, using interstimulus intervals (ISIs) ranging from -500 to 500 ms. Two of the masks (short) were 20 ms and two (long) were 200 ms in duration. One of each set of masks was matched in subjective intensity to the targets, but the others were more intense. The range of ISIs over which masking was obtained was comparable to that found by Massaro (1970) with auditory stimuli. Both short masks produced more masking than either long mask except at short ISIs. Larger mask intensities increased masking only at very short ISIs, and longer mask durations increased backward but not forward masking.     

Lingual vibrotactile and auditory cross-modal matching: frequency effects

5 subjects matched pairs of auditory and vibrotactile stimuli on intensity, making judgments of suprathreshold magnitudes. Slope values for the 100-Hz cross-modal lingual vibrotactile stimulus-standard frequency condition were steeper than those for 250- or 400-Hz conditions. Slope values became steeper at about 25- to 30-dB SL, so frequency seems an important parameter to control in such research.     

Variations in recollection: the effects of complexity on source recognition

Whether recollection is a threshold or signal detection process is highly controversial, and the controversy has centered in part on the shape of receiver operating characteristics (ROCs) and z-transformed ROCs (zROCs). U-shaped zROCs observed in tests thought to rely heavily on recollection, such as source memory tests, have provided evidence in favor of the threshold assumption, but zROCs are not always as U-shaped as threshold theory predicts. Source zROCs have been shown to become more linear when the contribution of familiarity to source discriminations is increased, and this may account for the existing results. However, another way in which source zROCs may become more linear is if the recollection threshold begins to break down and recollection becomes more graded and Gaussian. We tested the "graded recollection" account in the current study. We found that increasing stimulus complexity (i.e., changing from single words to sentences) or increasing source complexity (i.e., changing the sources from audio to videos of speakers) resulted in flatter source zROCs. In addition, conditions expected to reduce recollection (i.e., divided attention and amnesia) had comparable effects on source memory in simple and complex conditions, suggesting that differences between simple and complex conditions were due to differences in the nature of recollection, rather than differences in the utility of familiarity. The results suggest that under conditions of high complexity, recollection can appear more graded, and it can produce curved ROCs. The results have implications for measurement models and for current theories of recognition memory.     

Category size effects revisited: frequency and masked priming effects in semantic categorization

Previous work indicates that semantic categorization decisions for nonexemplars (e.g., deciding that TURBAN is not an animal name) are faster for high-frequency words than low-frequency words. However, there is evidence that this result might depend on category size. When narrow categories are used (e.g., Months, Numbers), there is no frequency effect for nonexemplars. This result is confirmed, and is explained in terms of a category search model, which allows a "No" decision to be generated without access to the lexical entry for the target word. This explains the absence of a frequency effect, but not the presence of a strong masked repetition priming effect, which is assumed to have a lexical source. It is shown that this effect may not be lexical, since nonwords also show similar priming. Both of these priming effects disappear when a larger category is used. This pattern of results is explained on the assumption that category search is only possible with small categories, and that tentative category decisions are generated for the unconsciously perceived prime, which leads to a marked response congruence effect.     

Fusion of auditory components: effects of the frequency of amplitude modulation

The fusion of two amplitude-modulated (AM) tones presented simultaneously was studied. Subjects were presented with an AM tone (A) followed by a copy of itself (B) which was accompanied by another AM tone (C). In different experiments, the subjects were asked either to rate how clearly they could hear Tone B in the BC mixture or whether Tone B was present or not. The stronger the fusion of Tones B and C, the harder it was to "hear out" Tone B. It was found that fusion was strongest when Tones B and C were modulated at the same rate; segregation curves were obtained for the degree of mismatch of modulation frequency.     

Naming pseudowords in Spanish: effects of syllable frequency

Three naming experiments were conducted to examine the role of the first and the second syllable during speech production in Spanish. Facilitative effects of syllable frequency with disyllabic words have been reported in Dutch and Spanish (Levelt & Wheeldon, 1994; Perea & Carreiras, 1998). In both cases, the syllable frequency effect was independent of-and additive to-the effect of word frequency. However, Levelt and Wheeldon (1994) found that words ending in a high-frequency syllable were named faster than words ending in a low-frequency syllable, whereas Perea and Carreiras (1998) found a facilitative effect of syllable frequency for the initial syllable. In Experiments 1-2, we manipulated the frequency of the first and the second syllable of disyllabic CV.CV pseudowords. In Experiment 3, participants named CVC disyllabic pseudowords for which only the frequency of the first syllable was manipulated. The experiments showed a facilitative effect of frequency of the first syllable. The findings are discussed in terms of the current models of speech production.     

On letter frequency effects

In four experiments we examined whether the frequency of occurrence of letters affects performance in the alphabetic decision task (speeded letter vs. pseudo-letter classification). Experiments 1A and 1B tested isolated letters and pseudo-letters presented at fixation, and Experiments 2A and 2B tested the same stimuli inserted at the 1st, 3rd, or 5th position in a string of Xs. Significant negative correlations between letter frequency and response times to letter targets were found in all experiments. The correlations were found to be stronger for token frequency counts compared with both type frequency and frequency rank, stronger for frequency counts based on a book corpus compared with film subtitles, and stronger for measures counting occurrences as the first letter of words compared with inner letters and final letters. Correlations for letters presented in strings of Xs were found to depend on letter case and position-in-string. The results are in favor of models of word recognition that implement case-specific and position-specific letter representations.     

Comparing contrast-modulated and luminance-modulated masking: effects of spatial frequency and phase

The masking of a sinusoidal test grating by contrast-modulated (CM) gratings could, in principle, be attributable to the presence of a distortion product, injected into the stimulus during some nonlinear transformation at an early level of visual processing (e.g. Nachmias, 1989 Vision Research 29 137-142). If so, CM gratings and luminance-modulated (LM) gratings of similar effective contrast and spatial frequency should mask the detection of sinusoids in a similar fashion. We compared the effects of masking by 1 cycle deg-1 CM gratings [both simple beats (8 + 9 cycles deg-1) and amplitude-modulated gratings (8 + 9 + 10 cycles deg-1)], with those of masking by 1 cycle deg-1 LM gratings of low contrast. We found that: (i) CM and low-contrast LM grating masks yielded similar spatial-frequency tuning functions around the modulation frequency of 1 cycle deg-1; (ii) low-contrast LM gratings masked the detection of test sinusoids in a highly phase-dependent fashion, while masking by CM gratings did not vary systematically with relative spatial phase. The results suggest that masking produced by CM gratings cannot simply be explained by the presence of a distortion product at the beat or modulation frequency.     

Word frequency and root-morpheme frequency effects on processing of Korean particle-suffixed words

Two experiments investigated the roles of the frequency of the root morpheme and the frequency of the whole word for a particular type of suffixed word in Korean in which the suffixed word can be thought of as a phrase (e.g., grandson-with). In both experiments, sentence frames were constructed so that they could have one of two target words that varied on frequency characteristics in the same location in the sentence. In Experiment 1, the frequency of the root morpheme was varied with the frequency of the word controlled, and in Experiment 2, the frequency of the word was varied with the frequency of the root morpheme controlled. Word frequency had a significant effect on fixation times, whereas root morpheme frequency did not. The results were surprising as native Korean speakers view the root morpheme as the “word” (analogous to how English readers would view a noun followed by a prepositional phrase).     

Recruiting source effects: A test of two alternative explanations

This field study examined two alternative explanations for recruitment source effects which have been consistently reported in previous studies. For this sample of 98 social service workers, the ‘ realism’ explanation for source differences received more empirical support than the ‘ individual difference ’ explanation. Employee referrals were found to have more realistic expectations than individuals who responded to newspaper ads or directly applied to the organization. In addition, recruitment source was found to be related to employee performance and involuntary turnover. The authors suggest an, as yet, unexamined individual difference variable (motivation) as a possible explanation for the unexpected performance findings.     

Predicting and postdicting the effects of word frequency on memory

In the experiments reported here, I replicate and extend recent results that reveal that judgments about the memorability of common and uncommon words differ qualitatively depending on whether they are made during study or elicited during a recognition test (Guttentag & Carroll, 1998). When assessing recognition ability for individual words, subjects predict superior performance for common words, but postdict better performance for uncommon words. This interaction suggests that subjects rely on different cues when making judgments during study than they do when making analogous judgments during the recognition test, and that the cues utilized during recognition lead judgments to be more accurate. The shift is then evident in later predictions Subjects who make postdictions consequently correctly predict superior recognition performance for uncommon words on a subsequent study list. When subjects are asked to make later predictions about recall performance, however, having made postdictions on a test of recognition does not mislead subjects into predicting superior recall performance for uncommon words.     

Antecedent frequency effects during the processing of pronouns

An eye-movement reading experiment investigated whether the ease with which pronouns are processed is affected by the lexical frequency of their antecedent. Reading times following pronouns with infrequent antecedents were faster than following pronouns with frequent antecedents. We argue that this is consistent with a saliency account, according to which infrequent antecedents are more salient than frequent antecedents. The results are not predicted by accounts which claim that readers access all or part of the lexical properties of the antecedent during the processing of pronouns.     

Reducing bias in frequency judgment by improving source monitoring

A common finding in judgment and decision making is that people's frequency judgments often fail to map onto objective frequencies. The present research examined the possibility that one source of bias in frequency judgment is attributable to people's inability to screen out irrelevant memory traces. We used a two-list source-monitoring paradigm to investigate whether frequency judgments are influenced by "extra-experimental" experiences and whether enhancing source monitoring improves judgment accuracy. Across four experiments we found: (1) frequency judgments regarding one list were biased by the second, (2) manipulating encoding between lists improved source monitoring and resulted in more accurate judgments, (3) manipulating item context between lists improved source monitoring and resulted in more accurate judgments, but only when the context was item specific, and (4) manipulating simple-background context between lists was ineffective at improving source monitoring.     

Category effects on stimulus estimation: Shifting and skewed frequency distributions

The category adjustment model (CAM) proposes that estimates of inexactly remembered stimuli are adjusted toward the central value of the category of which the stimuli are members. Adjusting estimates toward the average value of all category instances, properly weighted for memory uncertainty, maximizes the average accuracy of estimates. Thus far, the CAM has been tested only with symmetrical category distributions in which the central stimulus value is also the mean. We report two experiments using asymmetric (skewed) distributions in which there is more than one possible central value: one where the frequency distribution shifts over the course of time, and the other where the frequency distribution is skewed. In both cases, we find that people adjust estimates toward the category’s running mean, which is consistent with the CAM but not with alternative explanations for the adjustment of stimuli toward a category’s central value.     

Assimilation and contrast in persuasion: the effects of source credibility in multiple message situations

The present research explores a contextual perspective on persuasion in multiple message situations. It is proposed that when people receive persuasive messages, the effects of those messages are influenced by other messages to which people recently have been exposed. In two experiments, participants received a target persuasive message from a moderately credible source. Immediately before this message, participants received another message, on a different topic, from a source with high or low credibility. In Experiment 1, participants' attitudes toward the target issue were more favorable after they had first been exposed to a different message from a low rather than high credibility source (contrast). In Experiment 2, this effect only emerged when a priming manipulation gave participants a dissimilarity mindset. When participants were primed with a similarity mindset, their attitudes toward the target issue were more favorable following a different message from a high rather than low credibility source (assimilation).