Showing papers in "Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology in 1981"
TL;DR: A computerised database of psycholinguistic information is described, where semantic, syntactic, phonological and orthographic information about some or all of the 98,538 words in the database is accessible, by using a specially-written and very simple programming language.
Abstract: This paper describes a computerised database of psycholinguistic information. Semantic, syntactic, phonological and orthographic information about some or all of the 98,538 words in the database is accessible, by using a specially-written and very simple programming language. Word-association data are also included in the database. Some examples are given of the use of the database for selection of stimuli to be used in psycholinguistic experimentation or linguistic research.
2,277 citations
TL;DR: In two experiments, hungry rats were given instrumental lever-press training for an appetitive reinforcer and were exposed to another type of food which was not contingent on lever pressing, discussing in terms of whether the reinforcer is encoded in the associative structure set up by exposure to an instrumental contingency
Abstract: In two experiments, hungry rats were given instrumental lever-press training for an appetitive reinforcer and, in addition, were exposed to another type of food which was not contingent on lever pr...
636 citations
TL;DR: This paper found no facilitatory effects of context on lexical decision times for either highly predictable or semantically appropriate (but unpredictable) completions, whereas strong inhibitory effects were obtained for inappropriate completions.
Abstract: Models of language processing which stress the autonomy of processing at each level predict that the semantic properties of an incomplete sentence context should have no influence on lexical processing, either facilitatory or inhibitory. An experiment similar to those reported by Fischler and Bloom (1979) and Stanovich and West (1979, 1981) was conducted using naming time as an index of lexical access time. No facilitatory effects of context were observed for either highly predictable or semantically appropriate (but unpredictable) completions, whereas strong inhibitory effects were obtained for inappropriate completions. When lexical decision time was the dependent measure, the same results were obtained, except that predictable completions now produced strong facilitation. In a further experiment the inhibitory effects of context on lexical decision times for inappropriate targets were maintained, even though unfocussed contexts were used, in which no clear expectancy for a particular completion was inv...
397 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, a four-field masking procedure was used, in which the presentation of consecutive prime and target letter strings was preceded and followed by presentations of a pattern mask.
Abstract: Three experiments investigated the nature of the information required for the lexical access of visual words. A four-field masking procedure was used, in which the presentation of consecutive prime and target letter strings was preceded and followed by presentations of a pattern mask. This procedure prevented subjects from identifying, and thus intentionally using, prime information. Experiment I extablished the existence of a semantic priming effect on target identification, demonstrating the lexical access of primes under these conditions. It also showed a word repetition effect independent of letter case. Experiment II tested whether this repetition effect was due to the activation of graphemic or phonemic information. The graphemic and phonemic similarity of primes and targets was varied. No evidence for phonemic priming was found, although a graphemic priming effect, independent of the physical similarity of the stimuli, was obtained. Finally Experiment III demonstrated that, irrespective of whether ...
315 citations
TL;DR: Support is provided for a mixed control model of eye movements in reading, in which decisions about when and where to move the eyes are based on information from the current fixation, the prior fixations, and possibly, other sources as well.
Abstract: In three experiments, subjects read text as their eye movements were monitored and display changes in the text were made contingent upon the eye movements. In one experiment, a window of text moved in synchrony with the eyes. In one condition, the size of the window was constant from fixation to fixation, while in the other condition the size of the window varied from fixation to fixation. In the other experiments, a visual mask was presented at the end of each saccade which delayed the onset of the text, and the length of the delay was varied. The pattern of eye movements was influenced by both the size of the window and the delay of the onset of the text, even when the window size or text delay was varying from fixation to fixation. However, there was also evidence that saccade length was affected by the size of the window on the prior fixation and that certain decisions to move the eye are programmed either before the fixation begins or are programmed during the fixation but without regard to the text ...
222 citations
TL;DR: The presence in critical non-words of morphemes pronounced consistently or inconsistently with the biased pronunciations significantly affected biasing makes the case for lexical analogy theory even stronger.
Abstract: It is widely held that there are two (non-semantic) processes by which oral reading may be achieved: (a) by known words visually addressing lexical storage of their complete orthography and phonology; (b) by parsing a letter string into graphemes which are translated by rule into phonemes. Irregular words (HAVE) rely on the former, new and non-words rely on the latter. Recent evidence casts doubt on this view; to meet some of this data a revised version is presented. An alternative view is that the phonology of both words and non-words, at each encounter, is retrieved by analogy with all known words having matching segments. In a mixed list of words and non-words, presented singly for pronunciation, phonologically ambiguous non-words (NOUCH) were preceded critically by words with the same ambiguous segments, either pronounced regularly (COUCH) or irregularly (TOUCH). Standard (and revised) dual-process theory predicts that preceding words will not affect pronunciation of non-words; analogy theory predicts...
217 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examined the assertion that phonological recoding for the purpose of lexical access in visual word recognition is prevented or impaired by concurrent articulation and found no evidence to support this claim.
Abstract: Six experiments are reported which examine the assertion that phonological recoding for the purpose of lexical access in visual word recognition is prevented or impaired by concurrent articulation ...
170 citations
TL;DR: The study examined the contribution of various sources of visual information utilised in the control of discrete aiming movements and suggested that the critical visual information for aiming accuracy is that of the stylus.
Abstract: The study examined the contribution of various sources of visual information utilised in the control of discrete aiming movements. Subjects produced movements, 15.24 cm in amplitude, to a 1.27 cm t...
152 citations
TL;DR: An asymmetry of attention was observed when subjects attempted to perform concurrent, relatively independent tasks with the two hands: right-handed subjects performed very much better on a dual task which required them to follow the beat of a metronome with the left while tapping as quickly as they could with the right.
Abstract: An asymmetry of attention was observed when subjects attempted to perform concurrent, relatively independent tasks with the two hands: right-handed subjects performed very much better on a dual task which required them to follow the beat of a metronome with the left while tapping as quickly as they could with the right than with the converse arrangement. It is suggested that attentional strategies which have evolved to allow guidance of interdependent skilled bimanual activities are also used when subjects attempt to perform relatively independent concurrent bimanual movements, which are not observed in the naturally occurring motor repertoire. Thus, interactions between hand, hand preference and nature of task are an important factor in dual task performance.
149 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, four experiments were reported on the use made of a common fundamental frequency or a common starting time in grouping formants together to form phonetic categories, and the results showed that the perception of a vowel category is unaffected by formants being excited at different fundamentals or starting at 100-ms intervals.
Abstract: Are there general auditory grouping principles that allow the sounds of a single speaker to be grouped together before phonetic categorisation? Four experiments are reported on the use made of a common fundamental frequency or a common starting time in grouping formants together to form phonetic categories. The first experiment shows that the perception of a vowel category is unaffected by formants being excited at different fundamentals or starting at 100-ms intervals. The second and third experiments show no effect of a different fundamental on the combination of the timbres of pairs of formants presented either binaurally or dichotically to form diphthongs. Onset-time also has no effect with binaural presentation. The fourth experiment finds both an effect of grouping formants by a common fundaental using formant trajectories that do not overlap in frequency, and also an effect of onset-time. Neither a common fundamental nor common onset-time is either a necessary or a sufficient condition for formants...
149 citations
TL;DR: A number of studies were conducted, in each of which a series of abstract visual patterns was presented, and the subject was then asked to choose which of two test items was in the list as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: A number of studies were conducted, in each of which a series of abstract visual patterns was presented, and the subject was then asked to choose which of two test items was in the list. The items ...
TL;DR: The authors explored the role of subvocalization in fluent reading and found that sub-vocalisation allows the creation of a supplementary arti cation for the reading task of detecting anomalous words or errors of word order in prose.
Abstract: A series of experiments explored the role of subvocalisation in fluent reading. Experiment I showed that when subjects were required to suppress articulation while reading, their ability to detect anomalous words or errors of word order in prose was markedly impaired although speed of reading was unaffected. Experiment II showed that this decrement was not a general effect due to performing a secondary task, since a concurrent tapping task did not impair detection accuracy. A third study explored the role of acoustic interference in reading by requiring subjects to detect errors in prose while attempting to ignore irrelevant speech, with or without articulatory suppression. Once again articulatory suppression led to a clear decrement in the subject's ability to detect errors, while unattended speech had no effect on performance. None of the manipulations influenced the speed with which the subjects performed the reading task. It is concluded that subvocalisation allows the creation of a supplementary arti...
TL;DR: The authors showed that when people make responses which they did not intend they can discover this by monitoring kinaesthetic and visual feedback, but it is less clear whether they can also correct perceptual er...
Abstract: We know that when people make responses which they did not intend they can discover this by monitoring kinaesthetic and visual feedback. It is less clear whether they can also correct perceptual er...
TL;DR: Findings are inconsistent with the current dual process theory of the routes from print to sound which implies that the phonology of a new word or nonword can be derived only from a form of letter-sound correspondence which is independent of lexical/syntactic pressures.
Abstract: The pronunciation of nonwords that start with TH is investigated in lists and sentences. The initial phoneme is usually unvoiced (as in THOUGHT) when the nonword is embedded in lists of words and nonwords. In contrast, the initial phoneme is usually voiced (as in THIS) when such nonwords are read aloud in a function word position in a sentence. These findings are inconsistent with the current dual process theory of the routes from print to sound which implies that the phonology of a new word or nonword can be derived only from a form of letter-sound correspondence which is independent of lexical/syntactic pressures.
TL;DR: Three experiments investigated whether subjects could selectively attend to a target item presented in close spatial proximity to a distractor element, with the result that there is differential processing of attended items even within the formerly critical area.
Abstract: Three experiments investigated whether subjects could selectively attend to a target item presented in close spatial proximity to a distractor element. Typically, the display consisted of two curve...
TL;DR: The results suggest that discriminative stimuli do not come to control appetitive instrumental responding by virtue of their implicit classical relationship to the instrumental reinforcer.
Abstract: In Experiment I, rats were exposed to a classical relationship between a clicker-light compound and response-independent food. Conditioning to the light was blocked if the clicker had previously served as a classical signal for food, but not if it had been established as a discriminative stimulus for food-reinforced lever pressing. In Experiment II, a tone-light compound served as a discriminative stimulus for lever pressing. Control by the light was blocked if the tone was independently trained as a discriminative stimulus, but not if it was trained as a classical signal for response-independent food. These results suggest that discriminative stimuli do not come to control appetitive instrumental responding by virtue of their implicit classical relationship to the instrumental reinforcer.
TL;DR: In this article, specific intertrial effects (repetition effects) and general intertrial effect (refractoriness or persisting attention to the preceding trial) were studied with the same-different judgment task, w...
Abstract: Specific intertrial effects (repetition effects) and general intertrial effects (refractoriness or persisting attention to the preceding trial) were studied with the same-different judgment task, w...
TL;DR: There is an ambiguity in formulations of the Law of Effect which stress the importance of the correlation of rate of responding with frequency of reinforcement as discussed by the authors. But the main problem is that such theori...
Abstract: There is an ambiguity in formulations of the Law of Effect which stress the importance of the correlation of rate of responding with frequency of reinforcement. The main problem is that such theori...
TL;DR: The results suggest that the processing facilitation provided by an appropriate semantic context consisted of both a relatively automatic component and a labile strategic component with an influence that was modulated by the recent usefulness of the information provided by semantic context.
Abstract: An appropriate semantic context has been demonstrated to facilitate word recognition in a variety of paradigms. The present experiment examined the consequences of varying the probability that word pairs presented in a lexical decision task would be related in meaning. Early in the 20-min session, the recent density of semantic relationships between words had little influence on the size of the contextual facilitation effect, but later the influence was marked. The results suggest that the processing facilitation provided by an appropriate semantic context consisted of both a relatively automatic component and a labile strategic component with an influence that was modulated by the recent usefulness of the information provided by semantic context.
TL;DR: In some cases of acquired dyslexia the extent of brain damage can be estimated from computed tomograms, and Marin reviews such radiological evidence on five of the patients discussed in the book.
Abstract: By far the most common traumatic cause of language disturbance is the cerebro-vascular accident (stroke). In this condition the blood supply to a region of brain tissue is interrupted, often due to the formation of an obstruction within the vasculature or to a larger clot forming in tissue after hemorrhage. In rarer cases a similar outcome may be due to hemorrhage caused by a gunshot wound or to closed head injury. The tissue that is deprived of blood dies. As a result of degeneration of the blood vessels water floods into the tissue, producing swelling that may affect the entire brain for a time. However, adaptation of the surrounding vascular system usually permits the fluid to drain away, together with much of the dead and now liquified tissue. This leaves the patient effectively with a hole in the brain, or at least an area of reduced tissue density, and as a consequence there may be some gross spatial readjustment of the surrounding tissue. With the dissipation of the swelling the patient becomes conscious but quite widespread changes in the state of the brain tissue may continue for some time thereafter. Typically the area of damage is large and difficult to define with precision due to the complex processes that give rise to it. For this reason, it is not, perhaps, surprising that attempts to relate patterns of impairment to the site of injury have yielded inconsistent outcomes. Despite these difficulties, naive psycho-anatomy (the term is Brain’s, I 96 I) has been the dominant tradition in the study of speech and reading disorders. Yet this approach has shown little success in accommodating the discrepancy between the effects of cortical stimulation and excision, on the one hand, and of cerebro-vascular accidents, on the other. Indeed, Penfield and Roberts (1959) have argued that there is no evidence for any cortical area that its removal causes permanent aphasia, though by convention surgeons avoid extirpation of Broca’s area. In some cases of acquired dyslexia the extent of brain damage can be estimated from computed tomograms. (These are two dimensional X-ray images of a horizontal section of the brain, produced by axial scanning of the intact brain). In an Appendix to Deep Dyslexia, Marin reviews such radiological evidence on five of the patients discussed in the book. All the patients had damage to the left hemisphere but the site of the damage varied considerably. Broca’s area, for instance, appeared to be spared in two cases. In all cases cortical and subcortical damage was very extensive and, as Marin observes, in some intuitive way out of proportion to the relatively minor language impairment.
TL;DR: Results are consistent with the view that inhibitory and excitatory conditioning both involve the acquisition of a general, motivational conditioned response which is capable of mediating the transfer of conditioning across different response systems.
Abstract: In Experiment I, rabbits received training to establish a clicker as a conditioned inhibitor. In a subsequent test phase this stimulus was used as a signal for shock either to the eye reinforced during initial training or to the opposite eye. Learning to the clicker was slower in both conditions than in the appropriate control groups. The second experiment replicated the results of those subjects trained and tested with opposite eyes and ruled out the possibility that the slower learning was due to the effects of latent inhibition. Experiment III demonstrated that excitatory conditioning to a clicker to one eye facilitated future excitatory conditioning to that stimulus to the opposite eye. These results are consistent with the view that inhibitory and excitatory conditioning both involve the acquisition of a general, motivational conditioned response which is capable of mediating the transfer of conditioning across different response systems.
TL;DR: Van der Molen et al. as discussed by the authors investigated the relationship between auditory intensity and choice reaction time (RT) and found that the RT/intensity functions depend on the extent of the demands on response selection.
Abstract: Eight subjects were used in an experiment investigating the relationship between auditory intensity and choice reaction time (RT). The subject's task was to translate the pitch of a monaural tone into a left or right key-press response, The monaural tone was presented to either the left or the right ear in a random order. The random presentation and the instruction to obey the tonal command required either ipsilateral or contralateral reactions which place different demands on response selection. The RT/intensity functions indicate that the relation between auditory intensity and choice RT depends on the extent of the demands on response selection. As these demands increase RT becomes less reduced and even increases at high intensities (>80 dB). This finding was taken to extend the available evidence on the additional intensity effect of strong auditory stimulation which is usually described as the extra immediate arousal effect in the literature. M. W. van der Molen is now at the Department of Psychology...
TL;DR: The results of all three experiments suggest that conditioning to the clicker could be overshadowed if the occurrence of food was more reliably predicted by the execution of an instrumental running response, and support the view that instrumental conditioning depends on the establishment of an association between response and reinforcer similar to the association between stimulus and reinforcement underlying classical conditioning.
Abstract: In two experiments, rats were first exposed to pairings of a clicker and food; they were subsequently, in order to measure the effectiveness of the clicker as a conditioned reinforcer, given the op...
TL;DR: Four experiments are reported in which a stimulus signalling the delivery of “free” food was presented to rats lever-pressing for food available on a variable interval schedule and it was found that responding was enhanced in the presence of the stimulus when the baseline schedule of reinforcement was lean.
Abstract: Four experiments are reported in which a stimulus (with a minimum duration of 60 s) signalling the delivery of “free” food was presented to rats lever-pressing for food available on a variable interval schedule. It was found that responding was enhanced in the presence of the stimulus when the baseline schedule of reinforcement was lean (Experiment I) and that the enhancement was dependent upon the pairing of the stimulus with free food (Experiments II and III). Experiment IV showed that an enhancement could be found after initial training in which stimulus-food pairings were given to subjects that were not concurrently lever pressing for food. It is argued that these results are consistent with the suggestion that an appetitive conditioned stimulus can energise appetitive instrumental behaviour. Department of Psychology, The University, Stirling, Scotland.
TL;DR: This article found that correct judgments for identical and different patterns were most affected by the distance between the two patterns, whereas correct judgements for patterns where one had been rotated through 180° or reflected were most influenced by the symmetry of the pattern positions.
Abstract: Subjects viewed pairs of random-dot patterns which were presented in a number of arrangements varying in the transformations applied to the patterns, in the distance between the patterns, and in the symmetry of the pattern positions with respect to the point of fixation. The task was to judge whether the patterns were “the same” taking into account possible rotations or reflections, or “different”. It was found that correct judgements for identical patterns were most affected by the distance between the two patterns, whereas correct judgements for patterns where one had been rotated through 180° or reflected were most affected by the symmetry of the pattern positions. A scheme modelling the visual recognition of transformed patterns, sufficient to explain the results, is presented. A portion of the data presented here was contained in a communication read at the Cambridge meeting of the Experimental Psychology Society, July 1980.
TL;DR: Analysis of the latencies indicated a LVF advantage for this task which is interpreted, in conjunction with the evidence from patients suffering from prosopagnosia, as indicating a right hemisphere superiority in synthesizing facial percepts.
Abstract: Investigation of lateral performance asymmetries in the early stages of face processing was conducted using a task which avoided the need either to memorise or to compare two faces. Subjects were merely required to decide whether or not a laterally presented stimulus constituted a face. Analysis of the latencies indicated a LVF advantage for this task which is interpreted, in conjunction with the evidence from patients suffering from prosopagnosia, as indicating a right hemisphere superiority in synthesizing facial percepts.
TL;DR: In this article, the Muller-Lyer and Poggendorff illusions were reduced by about 70% when all-line figures were replaced by all-dot figures, and the effect of the similarity effect was found to be independent of both figural structure and homogeneity.
Abstract: Both the Muller-Lyer and Poggendorff illusions were found to be reduced by about 70% when all-line figures were replaced by all-dot figures. These data are consistent with some other recent reports and they suggest that Coren's (1970) original finding of a 30% reduction represents an underestimation so that, in his terms, cognitive factors do not account for the larger proportion of these illusions. An additional experiment on mixed line and dot Poggendorff figures provided evidence for a similarity effect, so that larger effects occurred with all-line or all-dot figures than with mixed line-dot configurations. Also, mean effects with line-parallels exceeded those with dot-parallels. However, the interaction between these main effects was not significant. Thus, both figural structure (lines vs. dots) and figural homogeneity (all lines, all dots or mixed) may be independent determinants of the Poggendorff effect.
TL;DR: It is concluded that signalling food delivery is effective only when the rat must respond to earn the food and it is argued that the signal has its effect by overshadowing a response-reinforcer association.
Abstract: Pearce and Hall (1978) investigated the effects of making a brief flash of light contingent upon response in rats lever-pressing for food on a variable-interval (VI) schedule. When this signal occurred in conjunction only with reinforced responses the response rate was lowered with respect to a condition in which an equal number of light flashes occurred uncorrelated with reinforcement. The experiments reported here compared these effects with those produced by signalling “free” food deliveries in a similar way. Experiments I and II compared the effects of presenting correlated and uncorrelated schedules of light and food to rats given no opportunity to lever-press. The different schedules did not produce differences in response rate when the levers were made available. In Experiment III, free food was delivered to rats responding on a VI schedule. Signalling the delivery of earned food pellets produced a low response rate in comparison with a condition in which the free pellets were signalled. It is conc...
TL;DR: In two experiments using a self-paced reading task, it was shown that processes concerned with increasing the coherence of the representation occur at the ends of sentences and evidence that readers can modify and evaluate their representation before a sentence boundary was provided.
Abstract: In two experiments using a self-paced reading task we explored how readers schedule the processes involved in representing text. Experiment I showed that processes concerned with increasing the coherence of the representation occur at the ends of sentences. Experiment II provided evidence that readers can modify and evaluate their representation before a sentence boundary, contrary to the type of processing scheme exemplified by H. H. Clark's Given-New strategy (Clark and Clark, 1977). A modification of the strategy is considered which renders it compatible with the data.
TL;DR: In this paper, the performance of single variable-interval avoidance schedules, single variable interval positive reinforcement schedules, and concurrent schedules consisting of a variable interval avoidance component and a variable intervals positive reinforcement component was studied in three human subjects, using points exchangeable for money as the reinforcer.
Abstract: Performance maintained under single variable-interval avoidance schedules, single variable-interval schedules of positive reinforcement, and concurrent schedules consisting of a variable-interval avoidance component and a variable-interval positive reinforcement component, was studied in three human subjects, using points exchangeable for money as the reinforcer. Response rate in the single variable-interval avoidance schedules was an increasing function of the frequency of monetary loss avoidance. Response rate in the single variable-interval positive reinforcement schedules was an increasing function of the frequency of obtained monetary reinforcement. In the concurrent avoidance/reinforcement schedules, the rate of responding in the avoidance component increased, and the rate of responding in the positive reinforcement schedule decreased (with one exception) as a function of the frequency of loss avoidance in the avoidance component. The logarithms of the ratios of the response rates in the two compone...