On the role of set when reading aloud: A dissociation between prelexical and lexical processing

Two experiments investigated the role that mental set plays in reading aloud using the task choice procedure developed by Besner and Care [Besner, D., & Care, S. (2003). A paradigm for exploring what the mind does while deciding what it should do. Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology, 57, 311–320]. Subjects were presented with a word, and asked to either read it aloud or decide whether it appeared in upper/lower case. Task information, in the form of a brief auditory cue, appeared 750 ms before the word, or at the same time as the word. Experiment 1 yielded evidence consistent with the claim that at least some pre-lexical processing can be carried out in parallel with decoding the task cue (the 0 SOA condition yielded a smaller contrast effect than the long SOA condition). Experiment 2 provided evidence that such processing is restricted to pre-lexical levels (the word frequency effect was equivalent at the 0 SOA and the long SOA). These data suggest that a task set is a necessary preliminary to lexical processing when reading aloud.     

Contextual effects on reading aloud: evidence for pathway control

Recent evidence suggests that the processes responsible for generating a phonological code from print are flexible in skilled readers. An important goal, therefore, is to identify the conditions that lead to changes in how a phonological code is computed. Five experiments are reported that examine whether phonological processes change as predicted by the pathway control hypothesis when reading aloud words and nonwords. Changes in reading processes were assessed by measuring the effect of predictable switches between stimulus categories across trials. The results of the present experiments are argued to be consistent with the pathway control hypothesis.     

The Stroop effect: why proportion congruent has nothing to do with congruency and everything to do with contingency

The item-specific proportion congruent (ISPC) effect refers to the observation that the Stroop effect is larger for words that are presented mostly in congruent colors (e.g., BLUE presented 75% of the time in blue) and smaller for words that are presented mostly in a given incongruent color (e.g., YELLOW presented 75% of the time in orange). One account of the ISPC effect, the modulation hypothesis, is that participants modulate attention based on the identity of the word (i.e., participants allow the word to influence responding when it is presented mostly in its congruent color). Another account, the contingency hypothesis, is that participants use the word to predict the response that they will need to make (e.g., if the word is YELLOW, then the response is probably "orange"). Reanalyses of data from L. L. Jacoby, D. S. Lindsay, and S. Hessels (2003), along with results from new experiments, are inconsistent with the modulation hypothesis but entirely consistent with the contingency hypothesis. A response threshold mechanism that uses contingency information provides a sufficient account of the data.     

Contingency learning without awareness: evidence for implicit control

The results of four experiments provide evidence for controlled processing in the absence of awareness. Participants identified the colour of a neutral distracter word. Each of four words (e.g., MOVE) was presented in one of the four colours 75% of the time (Experiments 1 and 4) or 50% of the time (Experiments 2 and 3). Colour identification was faster when the words appeared in the colour they were most often presented in relative to when they appeared in another colour, even for participants who were subjectively unaware of any contingencies between the words and the colours. An analysis of sequence effects showed that participants who were unaware of the relation between distracter words and colours nonetheless controlled the impact of the word on performance depending on the nature of the previous trial. A block analysis of contingency-unaware participants revealed that contingencies were learned rapidly in the first block of trials. Experiment 3 showed that the contingency effect does not depend on the level of awareness, thus ruling out explicit strategy accounts. Finally, Experiment 4 showed that the contingency effect results from behavioural control and not from semantic association or stimulus familiarity. These results thus provide evidence for implicit control.     

Simon says: Reliability and the role of working memory and attentional control in the Simon task

TheSimon effect refers to the observation that subjects identify targets (e.g., colors) faster when the irrelevant spatial location of the target corresponds to the location of the response key. Theoretical accounts of the Simon effect typically explain performance in terms of automatic and controlled processes. Furthermore, the relative contributions of automatic and controlled processes are held to change as a function of the proportion of compatible to incompatible trials (compatibility proportion). Data are presented demonstrating that the reliability of the Simon effect, indexed by correlating its magnitude within subjects across blocks of trials, varied substantially as a function of the compatibility proportion. When the compatibility proportion was high, so was reliability. When the compatibility proportion was low, reliability was low as well. The results are discussed in terms of the relative reliability of automatic and controlled processes and the role of working memory and attentional control in goal maintenance.     

Single letter coloring and spatial cuing eliminates a semantic contribution to the Stroop effect

Previous work has shown that the Stroop effect is reduced in size when a single letter is colored and spatially precued. The present experiment addresses a number of criticisms of this work by (1) providing a direct measure of semantic processing, (2) using a vocal response instead of a manual one, and (3) using a more appropriate baseline. A semantically based Stroop effect (slower color naming for color-associated words than for color-neutral words) is observed when all letters in the display are precued and appear in a homogeneous color. This Stroop effect is statistically eliminated when a single letter is precued and is the “odd man out” in terms of its color. Two explanations are considered. In one, single-letter coloring and cuing serve to curtail semantic processing. In the other, single-letter coloring and cuing help to keep the informational sources (i.e, color, word) separate and hence reduce interference, but semantic analysis is not curtailed. The latter account provides a more complete account of existing data.     

Parallel distributed processing and lexical-semantic effects in visual word recognition: are a few stages necessary?

D. C. Plaut and J. R. Booth (2000) presented a parallel distributed processing model that purports to simulate human lexical decision performance. This model (and D. C. Plaut, 1995) offers a single mechanism account of the pattern of factor effects on reaction time (RT) between semantic priming, word frequency, and stimulus quality without requiring a stages-of-processing account of additive effects. Three problems are discussed. First, no evidence is provided that this model can discriminate between words and nonwords with the same orthographic structure and still produce the pattern of factor effects on RT it currently claims to produce. Second, the level of representation used by the model to make a lexical decision is inconsistent with what is known about how skilled readers with damage to their semantic system make word/nonword discriminations. Finally, there are a number of results that are difficult to reconcile with the single mechanism account. The authors' preference is to retain the stages-of-processing account.     

There goes the neighbourhood: contextual control over the breadth of lexical activation when reading aloud

There are currently two computational accounts of how the time to read pseudohomophones (like BRANE) and their nonword controls (like FRANE) varies with changes in context. In Reynolds and Besner's (2005) account, readers vary the breadth of lexical activation in response to changes in context. A competing account proposed by Kwantes and Marmurek (2007) and independently by Perry, Ziegler, and Zorzi (2007) has readers varying their response criterion in response to changes in context. The present work adjudicates between these two accounts by examining how the effect of neighbourhood density changes as a function of list context when reading pseudohomophones aloud. The results of an experiment and simulations from a leading computational model support the lexical breadth account, but are inconsistent with the response criterion account.     

Reading without phonology?

Responses to items such as brane are slower and/or more error prone than responses to items such as slint in lexical decision (is this string spelt like a real word?). The received view is that this “pseudohomophone” effect is attributable to phonological receding. Taft (1982) has challenged this view, offering instead a grapheme-grapheme account which assumes that graphemes that map onto a common phoneme develop the ability to activate each other without reference to phonological mediation.

Taft's grapheme-grapheme account is tested in two experiments. Experiment 1 shows that the presentation of a pseudohomophone facilitates the response to a subsequently presented word (e.g., groce-gross). Experiment 2 shows that nonword letter strings that are translatable into words by the application of putative grapheme-grapheme rules (e.g., gloce-gloss) produce no facilitation. These results are consistent with the notion of a phonological influence but inconsistent with the grapheme-grapheme account. Loci for this pseudohomophone priming effect are discussed.     

On the role of outline shape and word-specific visual pattern in the identification of function words: None

A common assumption in the reading literature is that function words are often identified wholly or in part on the basis of outline shape and/or word-specific visual pattern. This assumption was examined in three perceptual identification experiments, a speeded oral reading experiment, and in a lexical decision task where the visual pattern of function words and control items (content words, non-words and control strings) was systematically distorted by cAsE alTeRnA-tIoN. In all five experiments distortion failed to impair performance more on functors than on various control items. This result is argued to be inconsistent with the view that outline shape and word-specific visual pattern typically play a role in the identification of isolated function words.

Shape distortion impaired function words less than controls in perceptual identification, but impaired function and content words equally in speeded naming and lexical decision. These contrasting effects of shape distortion are discussed in terms of a distinction between the uptake of information (lexical access) and phenomenal perception.