The Effects of Limited Stimulus Information on Word Processing

Abstract

<p>Word and pseudowords were tachistoscopically presented to subjects who had to verify as fast as possible whether the items were members of large or small semantic categories and to decide whether or not the items were in fact words. A dictionary model of word processing was tested, once at the respective thresholds for making wordness and semantic decisions and once at longer presentation times for purposes of comparison to other studies. Response latencies suggest that at short presentation times, when processing is not allowed to advance to the semantic level, a dictionary process seems plausible, whereas at long presentation times retrieval of semantic information may originate from stored categories of words. Final recognition data suggest that items paired with the wordness questions were not processed to as "deep" a level as items paired with the 'semantic questions.</p>