Lexical Decisions and Knowledge of Orthographic Structure in Skilled and Less Skilled College Readers

1981 ◽  
Vol 53 (3) ◽  
pp. 959-965
Author(s):  
Delphine Yelen ◽  
Gary B. Forbach
Keyword(s):  
College Students ◽  
Reading Comprehension ◽  
High Frequency ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
Skilled Readers ◽  
Lexical Decisions ◽  
College Readers ◽  
High Frequency Words

College students were classified as either skilled or less skilled readers on the basis of reading comprehension scores and were then asked to judge whether high-frequency words, low-frequency words, orthographically legal nonwords, and orthographically illegal nonwords were words or nonwords. Skilled readers were significantly faster than less skilled readers on this task for all stimulus categories, but the largest differences between groups were found for low-frequency words and legal nonwords. Differences between the groups were larger for orthographically illegal nonwords than for high-frequency words. It was concluded that less skilled college readers do not use orthographic structure as an aid in lexical decisions as well as skilled readers and that their ability to decode even high-frequency words is not as automatic as that of the skilled readers.

scholarly journals Emotional Prosody in Interjections: A Case of Non-arbitrariness in Language

2013 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-76
Author(s):  
Åsa Abelin
Keyword(s):  
High Frequency ◽  
Priming Effect ◽  
Semantic Representation ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
Main Question ◽  
Emotional Prosody ◽  
Affective Prosody ◽  
Priming Task ◽  
Lexical Decisions ◽  
High Frequency Words

Emotional prosody shows a connection between meaning and expression, and constitutes a special case of non-arbitrariness in language. Emotional interjections are learned at an early age, and also have a biological basis for their expression. It is therefore possible that emotional prosody of interjections is part of the phonological and semantic representation in the mental lexicon, and hence can be expected to influence visual lexical decisions. If confirmed, this would have some bearing on the debate concerning the relations between ‘linguistic’ and ‘affective’ prosody. A priming experiment was performed on Swedish interjections with two emotional meanings: HAPPINESS (positive words) and DISGUST (negative words). The main question was whether emotional prosody primes written interjections with emotional content, through cross-modal priming, and the chosen method was to elicit lexical decisions in a cross-modal priming task and in isolation. The results show that there was an effect of priming, and that the effect was significantly greater for HAPPINESS words (and HAPPINESS prosody) than for DISGUST words (and DISGUST prosody). For individual words, there was a positive correlation between a high priming effect for the corresponding emotion and the degree of correct interpretations of emotional primes. Furthermore, there was a tendency for high-frequency words to be primed more than low-frequency words, when the emotion of the prosody was matched. There was no such effect for high-frequency words when the emotion of the prosody was mismatched. There was also a tendency to a negative correlation between degree of correct interpretations of emotional primes and high priming effect, when the prosody was mismatched. We interpret these results to mean that it is problematic to regard emotional prosody as non-linguistic and disconnected from the lexicon, since there was a gradual connection between spoken emotional prosody, written emotional interjections, and lexical frequency of interjections.

A Longitudinal Study of the Effects of Word Frequency and Rime-Neighborhood Size on Beginning Readers' Rime Reading Accuracy in Words and Nonwords

2002 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-58 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Anne Calhoon ◽  
Lauren Leslie
Keyword(s):  
Longitudinal Study ◽  
Word Frequency ◽  
Word Learning ◽  
High Frequency ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
Beginning Readers ◽  
Developmental Model ◽  
Neighborhood Size ◽  
Reading Accuracy ◽  
High Frequency Words

Beginning readers' rime reading accuracy was assessed over three years to examine the influence of word frequency and rime-neighborhood size (the number of single syllable words with the same rime) on words presented in lists and stories. Twenty-seven 1st- and 2nd- grade students read 54 words and 27 nonwords containing rimes from different size neighborhoods. In Year 1, children showed effects of neighborhood size in high frequency words read in stories and in low frequency words read in lists and stories. In Year 2, rimes from large neighborhoods were read more accurately than rimes from medium and small neighborhoods in high- and low-frequency words. In Year 3, no effects of rime-neighborhood size were found for high-frequency words, but effects on low-frequency words continued. These results support Leslie and Calhoon's (1995) developmental model of the effects of rime-neighborhood size and word frequency as a function of higher levels of word learning.

PHONOLOGICAL EVIDENCE FOR EXEMPLAR STORAGE OF MULTIWORD SEQUENCES

2002 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 215-221 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joan Bybee
Keyword(s):  
High Frequency ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
Phonetic Variation ◽  
Word Boundaries ◽  
High Frequency Words

Phonological evidence supports the frequency-based model proposed in the article by Nick Ellis. Phonological reduction occurs earlier and to a greater extent in high-frequency words and phrases than in low-frequency ones. A model that accounts for this effect needs both an exemplar representation to show phonetic variation and the ability to represent multiword combinations. The maintenance of alternations conditioned by word boundaries, such as French liaison, also provides evidence that multiword sequences are stored and can accrue representational strength. The reorganization of phonetic exemplars in favor of the more frequent types provides evidence for some abstraction in categories beyond the simple registration of tokens of experience.

Word frequency does not moderate the degree to which people can selectively attend to parts of visually presented words

2020 ◽  
pp. 174702182096906
Author(s):  
Todd A Kahan ◽  
Louisa M Slowiaczek ◽  
Ned Scott ◽  
Brian T Pfohl
Keyword(s):  
Word Frequency ◽  
High Frequency ◽  
Congruency Effect ◽  
Response Times ◽  
Test Word ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
Bigram Frequency ◽  
Capacity Model ◽  
Entire Word ◽  
High Frequency Words

Whether attention is allocated to an entire word or can be confined to part of a word was examined in an experiment using a visual composite task. Participants saw a study word, a cue to attend to either the right or left half, and a test word, and indicated if the cued half of the words (e.g., left) was the same (e.g., TOLD-TONE) or different (e.g., TOLD-WINE). Prior research using this task reports a larger congruency effect for low-frequency words relative to high-frequency words but extraneous variables were not equated. In this study ( N = 33), lexical (orthographic neighbourhood density) and sublexical (bigram frequency) variables were controlled, and word frequency was manipulated. Results indicate that word frequency does not moderate the degree to which parts of a word can be selectively attended/ignored. Response times to high-frequency words were faster than response times to low-frequency words but the congruency effect was equivalent. The data support a capacity model where attention is equally distributed across low-frequency and high-frequency words but low-frequency words require additional processing resources.

Masked onset priming effect for high-frequency words: Further support for the speech-planning account

2007 ◽  
Vol 60 (8) ◽  
pp. 1155-1167 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tania Malouf ◽  
Sachiko Kinoshita
Keyword(s):  
Target Word ◽  
High Frequency ◽  
Priming Effect ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
Alternative View ◽  
Mapping Process ◽  
Speech Planning ◽  
Speech Response ◽  
Target Words ◽  
High Frequency Words

Two experiments investigated whether priming due to a match in just the onset between a masked prime and target is found with high-frequency target words. Forster and Davis (1991, Exp. 5) reported that the masked onset priming effect was absent for high-frequency words and used the finding to argue that the effect has its locus in the grapheme–phoneme mapping process that operates serially within the nonlexical route. Experiment 1 used primes that were unrelated to targets and found a masked onset priming effect of equal size for high-frequency and low-frequency target words. Experiment 2 used form-related primes as used by Forster and Davis, and again found that the effect of onset mismatch was not dependent on target word frequency. These results are interpreted in terms of an alternative view that the masked onset priming effect has its origin in the process of preparing a speech response.

scholarly journals The Influence of Word Retrieval and Planning on Phonetic Variation: Implications for Exemplar Models

2015 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Angela Fink ◽  
Matthew Goldrick
Keyword(s):  
High Frequency ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
Word Retrieval ◽  
Phonetic Variation ◽  
Exemplar Models ◽  
The Past ◽  
Single Mechanism ◽  
High Frequency Words

AbstractOver the past several decades, an increasing number of empirical studies have documented the interaction of information across the traditional linguistic modules of phonetics, phonology, and lexicon. For example, the frequency with which a word occurs influences its phonetic properties of its sounds; high frequency words tend to be reduced relative to low frequency words. Lexicalist Exemplar Models have been successful in accounting for this body of results through a single mechanism,

Children's reading of words, pseudohomophones, and other nonwords

2002 ◽  
Vol 55 (2) ◽  
pp. 543-565 ◽  
Author(s):  
Veronica Laxon ◽  
Jackie Masterson ◽  
Alison Gallagher ◽  
Julia Pay
Keyword(s):  
High Frequency ◽  
Reading Development ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
Error Rates ◽  
Age Group ◽  
Neighbourhood Effects ◽  
Nonword Reading ◽  
Children's Reading ◽  
Children’S Reading ◽  
High Frequency Words

In Experiment 1 children aged 8-9 and 9-10 years were tested for neighbourhood and pseudohomophone effects in nonword reading. Neighbourhood effects (N effects) were robust irrespective of group or type of nonword. Pseudohomophones were read more accurately than other nonwords but this finding was robust only for the younger 8-9-year-olds. High-frequency words were read more accurately than low-frequency words, but the reverse applied to pseudohomophones based on high- and low-frequency words, although this was not robust. Error rates for the 9-10-year-olds in Experiment 1 were low, and so it was difficult to interpret the lack of a pseudohomophone advantage for reading nonwords in this age group. Experiment 2 was therefore carried out, which consisted of a replication of the first study with a further group of 9- 10-year-olds, but pronunciation latencies were measured, as well as accuracy. All the effects obtained in Experiment 1 were replicated but, in addition, an advantage for pseudohomophones in terms of pronunciation latencies was observed. The implications for accounts of reading development are discussed.

scholarly journals The Word Frequency Effect in Word Processing: An Updated Review

2017 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-50 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marc Brysbaert ◽  
Paweł Mandera ◽  
Emmanuel Keuleers
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Word Frequency ◽  
High Frequency ◽  
Word Processing ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
Frequency Effect ◽  
Word Frequency Effect ◽  
Frequency Measure ◽  
Language Exposure ◽  
High Frequency Words

The word frequency effect refers to the observation that high-frequency words are processed more efficiently than low-frequency words. Although the effect was first described over 80 years ago, in recent years it has been investigated in more detail. It has become clear that considerable quality differences exist between frequency estimates and that we need a new standardized frequency measure that does not mislead users. Research also points to consistent individual differences in the word frequency effect, meaning that the effect will be present at different word frequency ranges for people with different degrees of language exposure. Finally, a few ongoing developments point to the importance of semantic diversity rather than mere differences in the number of times words have been encountered and to the importance of taking into account word prevalence in addition to word frequency.

Frequency-Affect Relationship in a Simultaneous Spatial Presentation

1974 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 379-383 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margaret W. Matlin
Keyword(s):  
College Students ◽  
Linear Function ◽  
Direct Effect ◽  
High Frequency ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
Nonsense Word ◽  
Mode Of Presentation ◽  
Spatial Presentation ◽  
Spatial Display

72 college students saw a spatial display in which nonsense-word stimuli occurred 25, 10, 5, 2, 1 and 0 times. Occurrences of a given stimulus were either massed or distributed throughout the display. After a 4-min. viewing period, they rated all stimuli on a 7-point good-bad scale. Affect was a linear function of frequency, corroborating Zajonc's results with temporal presentation of stimuli that high-frequency items are preferred to low-frequency items. However, mode of presentation of these stimuli (massed versus distributed) had no direct effect or interaction with their frequency.

Does phonology play a role when skilled readers read high-frequency words? Evidence from ERPs

2012 ◽  
Vol 27 (9) ◽  
pp. 1361-1384 ◽  
Author(s):  
Randy Lynn Newman ◽  
Debra Jared ◽  
Corinne A. Haigh
Keyword(s):  
High Frequency ◽  
Skilled Readers ◽  
High Frequency Words
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