2007/03/21

Connie, C. M., Mullennis, J., Shernoff, E., & Yelen. J. (1990). Word familiarity and frequency in visual and auditory word recognition. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 16(6), 1084–1096.

Presentation: Elisa
Summary: Renee

This study investigates word frequency and word familiarity by conducting four experiments. These four experiments include Experiment 1 (lexical decision, visual), Experiment 2 (lexical decision, auditory), Experiment 3 (naming task, visual), and Experiment 4 (naming task, auditory). In the lexical decision tasks, the visual and auditory stimuli were presented and the reaction time was measured. In the naming tasks, subjects were shown visual or auditory cues and were instructed to do naming production. The results of Experiments 1 and 2 showed that there were significant frequency and familiarity effects on reaction time and accuracy, which meant that high frequency and high familiarity elicited shorter decision time and higher accuracy. The results of both Experiments 3 and 4 indicated that decision time decreased and accuracy increased when word familiarity increased. However, the word frequency effect was not as significant as that found in the first two experiments. The author further proposed two hypotheses concerning the role of word frequency and familiarity on lexical decision time and accuracy. The modality-specific hypothesis suggested that the visual frequency index influences lexical processes in the visual modality, while the auditory index is relevant for auditory presentation, and decision components are present for all stimuli in lexical decision. For the task-modality match hypothesis, the production code necessary for naming auditorily presented words is computed without lexical access, and the decision processes are minimized in lexical decision components for highly familiar words.