Abstract
In two experiments, subjects compared the identity of either the first letters of displays or all the letters in displays. Words yielded faster decisions than did pseudowords (pronounceable items derived by changing a vowel in a word) only when entire displays were compared. In a training phase run before the comparison task, subjects had written down either the first letters or entire displays. Relative to items that had not appeared in the training phase, prior experience at writing entire displays facilitatedsame decisions about entire displays and interfered withdifferent decisions about entire displays. Prior experiences did not moderate the processing of first-letter identities. It was concluded that episodic effects arise from the interaction of higher order information underlying lexical encoding. Prelexical processing of letters is not sensitive to episodic effects.
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This research was supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (Grant 0684). The data were collected by Paul Greveling and Janice Caulfield; programming assistance was provided by Wray Hutton. Comments by Lester Krueger, Bart Farell, and two anonymous reviewers on an earlier draft were helpful in strengthening the paper.
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Marmurek, H.H.C. Episodic effects on the visual comparison of letters in words. Perception & Psychophysics 52, 553–561 (1992). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03206717
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03206717