Abstract
Three attributes of words are their imageability, concreteness, and familiarity. From a literature review and several experiments, I previously concluded (Boles, 1983a) that only familiarity affects the overall near-threshold recognition of words, and that none of the attributes affects right-visual-field superiority for word recognition. Here these conclusions are modified by two experiments demonstrating a critical mediating influence of intentional versus incidental memory instructions. In Experiment 1, subjects were instructed to remember the words they were shown, for subsequent recall. The results showed effects of both imageability and familiarity on overall recognition, as well as an effect of imageability on lateralization. In Experiment 2, word-memory instructions were deleted and the results essentially reinstated the findings of Boles (1983a). It is concluded that right-hemisphere imagery processes can participate in word recognition under intentional memory instructions. Within the dual coding theory (Paivio, 1971), the results argue that both discrete and continuous processing modes are available, that the modes can be used strategically, and that continuous processing can occur prior to response stages.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
Balota, D. A., &Chumbley, J. I. (1984). Are lexical decisions a good measure of lexical access? The role of word frequency in the neglected decision stage.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance,10, 340–357.
Beatty, W. W., &Butters, N. (1986). Further analysis of encoding in patients with Huntington's &sense.Brain & Cognition,5, 387–398.
Bersted, C. T. (1983). Memory scanning of descrihed images and un-described images: Hemispheric differences.Memory & Cognition,11, 129–136.
Boles, D. B. (1983a). Dissociated imageability, concreteness, and familiarity in lateralized word recognition.Memory & Cognition,11, 511–519.
Boles, D. B. (1983b). Hemispheric interaction in visual field asymmetry.Cortex,19, 99–114.
Boles, D. B. (1987). Reaction time asymmetry through bdateral vs unilateral stimulus presentation.Brain & Cognition, 1987,6, 321–333.
Boles, D. B., Rogers, S., &Wymer, W. (1982). Age of acquisition and visual field asymmetry in word recognition.Perception & Psychophysics,32, 486–490.
Borkowski, J. G., Spreen, O., &Stutz, I. Z. (1965). Ear preference and abstractness in dichotic listening.Psychonomic Science,3, 547–548.
Bradshaw, J. L., Nettleton, N. C., &Taylor, M.J. (1981). Right hemisphere language and cognitive deficit in sinistrals?Neuropsychologia,19, 113–132.
Bryden, M. P. (1982).Laterality: Functional asymmetry in the intact brain. New York: Academic Press.
Coles, M. G. H., Gratton, G., Bashore, T. R., Eriksen, C. W., &Donchin, E. A. (1985). Psychophysiological investigation of the continuous flow model of human information processing.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance,11, 529–553.
Day, J. (1977). Right-hemisphere language processing in normal right-handers.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance,3, 518–528.
Day, J. (1979). Visual half-field word recognition as a function of syntactic class and imageability.Neuropsychologia,17, 515–519.
Ellis, H. D., &Shepherd, J. W. (1974). Recognition of abstract and concrete words presented in left and right visual fields.Journal of Experimental Psychology,103, 1035–1036.
Elman, J. L., Takahashi, K., &Tohsaku, Y. (1981). Lateral asymmetries for the identification of concrete and abstract Kanji.Neuropsychologia,19, 407–412.
Eriksen, C. W., &Schultz, D. W. (1979). Information processing in visual search: A continuous flow conception and experimental results.Perception & Psychophysics,25, 249–263.
Farah, M. J. (1986). The laterality of mental image generation: A test with normal subjects.Neuropsychologia,24, 541–551.
Frost, R., Katz, L., &Bestin, S. (1987). Strategies for visual word recognition and orthographical depth: a multilingual comparison.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance,13, 104–115.
Gilhooly, K. J., &Hay, D. (1977). Imagery, concreteness, age-of-acquisition, familiarity, and meaningfulness values for 205 five-letter words having single-solution anagrams.Behavior Research Methods & Instrumentation,9, 12–17.
Hatta, T. (1977). Lateral recognition of abstract and concrete Kanji in Japanese.Perceptual and Motor Skills,45, 731–734.
Hatta, T. (1983). Visual field differences in semantic comparative judgments with digits and Kanji stimulus materials.Neuropsychologta,21,669–678.
Haynes, W. O., &Moore, W. H. (1981). Sentence imagery and recall: An electroencephalographic evaluation of hemispheric processing tn males and females.Cortex,17, 49–62,
Hines, D. (1976). Recognition of verbs, abstract nouns, and concrete nouns from the left and right visual half-fields.Neuropsychologia,14, 211–216.
Howes, D. H., &Solomon, R. L. (1951). Visual duration threshold as a function of word-probability.Journal of Experimental Psychology,41,401–410.
Jones, D., &Spreen, O. (1967). Dichotic listening by retarded children: The effects of ear order and abstractness.Child Development,38, 101–105.
Kelly, R. R., &Orton, K. D. (1979). Dichotic perception of word-pairs with mixed image values.Neuropsychologia,17, 363–371.
Kerr, N. H., &Foulkes, D. (1981). Right hemispheric mediation of dream visualization: A case study.Cortex,17, 603–610.
Kroll, J. F., &Merves, J. S. (1986). Lexical access for concrete and abstract words.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition,12, 92–107.
Lambert, A. J., &Beaumont, J. G. (1982). On Kelly and Orton's Dichotic perception of word pairs with mixed image values. {Neuropsychologia},20, 209–210.
Lambert, A. J., &Beaumont, J. G. (1983). Imageability does not interact with visual field in lateral word recognition with oral report.Brain & Language,20, 115–142.
Leiber, L. (1982). Interhemispheric effects in short-term recognition memory for single words.Cortex,18, 113–124.
Marcel, A. J., &Patterson, K. E. (1978). Word recognition and production: Reciprocity in clinical and normal studies. In J. Requin (Ed.),Attention and performance VII (pp. 209–226). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Marshall, J. C., Caplan, D., &Holmes, J. M. (1975). The measure of laterality.Neuropsychologia,13, 315–321.
Matthews, W. A. (1983). The effects of concurrent secondary tasks on the use of imagery m a free recall task.Acta Psychologica,53, 231–241.
McClelland, J. L. (1979). On the time relations of mental processes: An examination of systems of processes in cascade.Psychological Review,86, 287–330.
McFarland, K., McFarland, M. L., Bain, J. D., &Ashton, R. (1978). Ear differences of abstract and concrete word recognition.Neuropsychologia,16, 555–561.
Orenstein, H. B., &Meighan, W. B. (1976). Recognition of bilaterally presented words varying in concreteness and frequency: Lateral dominance or sequential processing?Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society,7, 179–180.
Paivio, A. (1971).Imagery and verbal processes. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.
Paivio, A., &O'Neill, B. J. (1970). Visual recognition thresholds and dimensions of word meaning.Perception & Psychophysics,8, 273–275.
Paivio, A., Yuille, J. C., & Madigan, S. A. (1968). Concreteness, imagery, and meaningfulness values for 925 nouns.Journal of Experimental Psychology Monograph,76(1, Pt. 2).
Prior, M. R., Cummings, G., &Hendy, J. (1984). Recognition of abstract and concrete words in a dichotic listening paradigm.Cortex,20, 149–157.
Richardson, J. T. E. (1976). The effects of stimulus attributes upon latency of word recognition.British Journal of Psychology,67, 315–325.
Riegel, K. F., &Riegel, R. M. (1961). Prediction of word-recognition thresholds on the basis of stimulus-parameters.Language & Speech,4, 157–170.
Rodel, M., Dudley, J. G., &Bourdeau, M. (1983). Hemispheric differences for semantically and phonologically primed nouns: A tachistoscopic study in normals.Perception & Psychophysics,34, 523–531.
Saffran, E. M., Bogyo, L. C., Schwartz, M. F., &Marin, O. S. M. (1980). Does deep dyslexia reflect right-hemisphere reading? In M. Coltheart, K. Patterson, & J. C. Marshall (Eds.),Deep dyslexia (pp. 381–406). London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Schmuller, J., &Goodman, R. (1979). Bilateral tachistoscopic perception, handedness, and laterality.Brain & Language,8, 81–91.
Segui, J., Mehler, J., Frauenfelder, U., &Morton, J. (1982). The word frequency effect and lexical access.Neuropsychologia,20, 615–627.
Spreen, O., Borkowski, J. G., &Benton, A. L. (1967). Auditory word recognition as a function of meaningfulness, abstractness, and phonetic structure.Journal of Verbal Learning & Verbal Behavior,6, 101–104.
Sugishita, M. (1978). Mental association in the minor hemisphere of a commissurotomy patient.Neuropsychologia,16, 229–232.
Young, A. W., &Ellis, A. W. (1985). Different methods of lexical access for words presented in the left and right visual hemifields.Brain & Language,24, 326–358
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Boles, D.B. Word attributes and lateralization revisited: Implications for dual coding and discrete versus continuous processing. Memory & Cognition 17, 106–114 (1989). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03199562
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03199562