Marcus Taft

Bio: Marcus Taft is an academic researcher from University of New South Wales. The author has contributed to research in topics: Lexical decision task & Word recognition. The author has an hindex of 38, co-authored 84 publications receiving 6596 citations. Previous affiliations of Marcus Taft include Massachusetts Institute of Technology & Monash University.

Recognition of affixed words and the word frequency effect

Abstract: Three experiments are reported in which the word frequency effect is used as a diagnostic for determining whether affixed words coming from the same stem are stored together or separately in the lexicon. Prefixed words are examined in the first experiment, inflected words in the second and third. In the first two experiments, two types of word are compared where the words in each condition are matched on surface or presented frequency but are varied on the frequency of their stems or base frequency. It is found that lexical decision times are influenced by base frequency, thus indicating that words related by affixation are stored together in the lexicon. The third experiment, however, demonstrates that when base frequency is held constant and surface frequency is varied, lexical decision times are influenced by surface frequency. The results are accounted for by a model of word recognition whereby frequency has its effect at two different stages of the recognition process.

Morphological decomposition and the reverse base frequency effect.

Abstract: If recognition of a polymorphemic word always takes place via its decomposition into stem and affix, then the higher the frequency of its stem (i.e., base frequency) the easier the lexical decision...

Interactive-activation as a framework for understanding morphological processing

Abstract: A description is given of the main experiments that have been taken as support for the view that, in reading, a prefixed word is stripped of its prefix and lexically accessed on the basis of its stem. Since one of the most important of those experiments had been poorly executed, a new version of the same study is presented with results that are entirely consistent with the previous one. However, logical problems exist with the view that says that stems act as access codes used to gain access to the lexicon, the main ones having to do with the fact that a prefix store is required. As a result, an alternative model is favoured, namely, an interactive-activation model. Prefixed words are represented in decomposed form in this model, but no prelexical prefix-stripping is required. A detailed examination is made of the manner in which this framework is able to incorporate the previous empirical results, as well as other aspects of morphological processing.

DRC: a dual route cascaded model of visual word recognition and reading aloud.

Abstract: This article describes the Dual Route Cascaded (DRC) model, a computational model of visual word recognition and reading aloud. The DRC is a computational realization of the dual-route theory of reading, and is the only computational model of reading that can perform the 2 tasks most commonly used to study reading: lexical decision and reading aloud. For both tasks, the authors show that a wide variety of variables that influence human latencies influence the DRC model's latencies in exactly the same way. The DRC model simulates a number of such effects that other computational models of reading do not, but there appear to be no effects that any other current computational model of reading can simulate but that the DRC model cannot. The authors conclude that the DRC model is the most successful of the existing computational models of reading.

A theory of reading: From eye fixations to comprehension.

Abstract: This article presents a model of reading comprehension that accounts for the allocation of eye fixations of college students reading scientific passages. The model deals with processing at the level of words, clauses, and text units. Readers make longer pauses at points where processing loads are greater. Greater loads occur while readers are accessing infrequent words, integrating information from important clauses, and making inferences at the ends of sentences. The model accounts forthe gaze duration on each word of text as a function of the involvement of the various levels of processing. The model is embedded in a theoretical framework capable of accommodating the flexibility of reading.

Online and off-line handwriting recognition: a comprehensive survey

Abstract: Handwriting has continued to persist as a means of communication and recording information in day-to-day life even with the introduction of new technologies. Given its ubiquity in human transactions, machine recognition of handwriting has practical significance, as in reading handwritten notes in a PDA, in postal addresses on envelopes, in amounts in bank checks, in handwritten fields in forms, etc. This overview describes the nature of handwritten language, how it is transduced into electronic data, and the basic concepts behind written language recognition algorithms. Both the online case (which pertains to the availability of trajectory data during writing) and the off-line case (which pertains to scanned images) are considered. Algorithms for preprocessing, character and word recognition, and performance with practical systems are indicated. Other fields of application, like signature verification, writer authentification, handwriting learning tools are also considered.

Semantic priming and retrieval from lexical memory: Roles of inhibitionless spreading activation and limited-capacity attention.

Abstract: Prior to each visually presented target letter string in a speeded word-nonword classification task, either BIRD, BODY, BUILDING, or xxx appeared as a priming event When the target was a word, it was (a) a name of a type of bird on most BiRD-prime trials; (b) a name of part of a building on most BODY-prime trials; (c) a name of a part of the body on most BUiLDiNG-prime trials; (d) a name of a type of bird, part of a building, or part of the body equally often on xxx-prime trials Thus, on BiRD-prime trials the subject expected the word target to be chosen from the same category as the category represented by the word prime itself (Nonshift), whereas on BODY-prime and BuiLDiNG-prime trials the subject's attention was to be shifted because he or she expected the word target to be chosen from a category other than the category represented by the word prime itself (Shift) The word target was an exemplar of either the category the subject expected (Expected) or a category the subject did not expect (Unexpected) and was either semantically related (Related) or semantically unrelated (Unrelated) to the word prime Thus, there were five different types of word-prime-word-target trials: (a) BiRD-robin (Condition Nonshift-Expected-Related) ; (b) BiRD-arm (Condition Nonshift-Unexpected-Unrelated) ; (c) BODY-door (Condition Shift-Expected-Unrelated) ; (d) BODY-sparrow (Condition Shift-Unexpected-Unrelated); (e) BODYheart (Condition Shift-Unexpected-Related) The stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) between the prime and the target letter string varied between 250 and 2,000 msec At the 2,000-msec SOA, reaction times (RTs) on BiRD-robin type trials were faster than RTs on xxx-prime trials (a facilitation effect), whereas RTs on BIRDarm type trials were slower than RTs on xxx-prime trials (an inhibition effect) As SOA decreased, the facilitation effect on BiRD-robin trials remained constant, but the inhibition effect on BiRu-arm trials decreased until, at the 250-msec SOA, there was no inhibition For the Shift conditions at the 2,000-msec SOA, facilitation was obtained on BODY-door type trials and inhibition was obtained on BODY-sparrow type trials These two effects decreased in magnitude as the SOA decreased until, at the 250-msec SOA, there was no facilitation or inhibition On BODY-heart type trials, there was an inhibition effect at the 2,000 msec SOA, which decreased as the SOA decreased until, at the 250-msec SOA, it became a facilitation effect For the nonword targets, the facilitatory effects of the word primes decreased as SOA decreased These results were regarded as supporting the theory of Posner and Snyder that postulates two distinct components of attention: a fast automatic inhibitionless spreading-activation process and a slow limited-capacity consciousattention mechanism

Reading acquisition, developmental dyslexia, and skilled reading across languages: a psycholinguistic grain size theory.

Abstract: The development of reading depends on phonological awareness across all languages so far studied. Languages vary in the consistency with which phonology is represented in orthography. This results in developmental differences in the grain size of lexical representations and accompanying differences in developmental reading strategies and the manifestation of dyslexia across orthographies. Differences in lexical representations and reading across languages leave developmental “footprints” in the adult lexicon. The lexical organization and processing strategies that are characteristic of skilled reading in different orthographies are affected by different developmental constraints in different writing systems. The authors develop a novel theoretical framework to explain these cross-language data, which they label a psycholinguistic grain size theory of reading and its development.