Abstract
The development of efficiency in letter processing skills was studied using a letter search task. In two experiments, subjects searched for a target letter displayed with items varying in their visual featural or conceptual categorical similarity to the target. Accuracy and reaction time of search were evaluated for evidence of the visual search “category effect.” In order to determine if subjects could efficiently use knowledge of stimulus differences to facilitate search, conditions tested search time as a function of the amount of information to be processed both within the visual display and in short-term memory. In the two experiments, subjects of ages 6 years through adulthood showed the category effect; however, efficiency of letter processing was found to be related to the amount of information that had to be processed in memory. While there were drastic changes in search speed with increasing grade level, patterns of processing were consistent, leading to the conclusion that the knowledge required to process the letter information accurately is acquired very early. Results were discussed in terms of the distinctions among accuracy, automaticity, and efficiency of skill development and the relationship of these to general reading and intellectual development.
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This research was funded in part by the Syracuse University Research and Equipment Fund Grant RE-78-B17, awarded to the first author, and by NIMH Developmental Psychology Training Grant 5 T32 MH 16127, awarded to Yale University. Portions of this paper were presented at the meetings of the American Psychological Association, New York, 1979, and the Eastern Psychological Association, Hartford, Connecticut, 1980.
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Kaye, D.B., Brown, S.W., Post, T.A. et al. The development of letter processing efficiency. Memory & Cognition 9, 378–388 (1981). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03197563
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03197563