Effect of Letter Order on Word Recognition - PowerPoint - PowerPoint

							Effect of Letter Order on
   Word Recognition
 Matt Moore and Sarah Pollom
       Hanover College


                               1
Original Cambridge Study
Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde
 Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr
the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt
  tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at
   the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl
    mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit
 porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid
 deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the
               wrod as a wlohe.
                                              2
           What is known…
• If first and last letter are in correct order it does
  not affect our comprehension of a word
   – We do not read every letter of a word
   – Exterior letters serving as visual cues
      • Masking and Swapping
   – (McCusker, Gough, & Bias, 1981; Rawlinson, 1976)
• Jumbled words
   – i.e. hatospil, inmcoes, pintaet
   – (Oliver, Healy, & Mross, 2005)


                                                          3
      Research Objective
• First, we are testing whether or not
  both the first and lest letter play a role
  in word recognition.
• Second, we are testing whether the
  first or last letter plays a more
  significant role in word recognition.


                                           4
                 Design
• 2 x 4 repeated-measures design
  – Two independent variables
    • Congruency
    • Letter Order




                                   5
              Hypotheses
• Congruency
  – Faster reaction times for congruent versus
    incongruent conditions
• Letter order
  – Normal and first and last letter in correct order
    will produce the fastest reaction times
  – First letter only and last letter only in correct
    order will produce the slower reaction times

                                                    6
                 Method
• Participants
  – 23 undergraduate students
  – 65% female, 35% male
  – 100% Caucasian
  – Range in age from 18-22 years old
  – All claimed to be color normal


                                        7
               Materials
• Gateway computers w/ 14-inch LCD
  monitors
  – Operated by Windows XP
• Java 2 program
  – Accessed through Internet Explorer
  – Entitled the Stroop Experiment
  – http://psych.hanover.edu/classes/Cognition/ps
    y333.html

                                                8
                   Stimuli
• 8 different stimuli
  – Congruent or Incongruent
  – Correct letter order, first and last in correct
    order, first letter only in correct order, last
    letter only in correct order
  – Black background
  – Central word orientation
  – 16-point font size
  – Using yellow, orange, purple as the colors
                                                      9
Stimulus One




 Congruent and correct letter order


                                      10
Stimulus Two




Incongruent and correct letter order



                                       11
Stimulus Three




Congruent and first and last letter in correct order



                                                       12
  Stimulus Four




Incongruent and first and last letter in correct order



                                                         13
Stimulus Five




Congruent and first letter in correct order



                                              14
  Stimulus Six




Incongruent and first letter in correct order



                                                15
Stimulus Seven




 Congruent and last letter in correct order



                                              16
Stimulus Eight




Incongruent and last letter in correct order



                                               17
              Procedure
• Participants completed all eight
  conditions (in any order)
  – Using the following settings:
    • 25 Trials
    • Responding to the color by pressing the
      relevant buttons at the bottom of the screen
      or by pressing the following keys: y for
      yellow, p for purple, and o for orange.
      (rework)
                                                18
                                              Results
Mean Reaction Time (ms)   1500

                          1000                                              Congruent
                                                                            Incongruent
                          500

                            0




                                                                   m
                                             m


                                                                  m
                                  al




                                                                do
                                           do


                                                                do
                               m
                             or




                                                              an
                                         an


                                                             an
                            N




                                                            R
                                       R


                                                 R

                                                         ng
                                    e


                                              nd
                                    dl




                                                       ni
                                             E
                                  id




                                                     in
                                 M




                                                   eg
                                                   B



                                              Letter Order

                                  Congruency  F (1,22) = 40.381, p = 0.0
                                           No main effect of letter order
                                  Interaction  F (3,66) = 3.722, p = 0.016               19
              Discussion
• Our hypothesis supported the original
  Cambridge study.
• Our hypothesis did not support the
  (Oliver et al, 2005) study.
  – First letter only or last letter only did not
    have slower reaction times
    • Letters not really jumbled/lack of sensitivity
    • Can’t really make another word out of the
      colors (Andrews, 1996)
                                                    20
            Limitations
• Effect of Practice
  – Completed 8 conditions (knew to only
    look at color)
  – Some participants had more familiarity
    with Stroop Effect
• Faulty Reaction Times


                                             21
                 References
• Andrew, S. (1996). Lexical retrieval and selection
      processes: Effects of transposed-letter confusability.
      Journal of Memory and Language, 35(6), 775-800.
• McCusker, L., Gough, P., & Bias, R. (1981). Word
      recognition inside out and outside in. Journal of
      Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and
      Performance, 7(3), 538-551.
• Oliver, W., Healy, A., & Mross, E. (2005). Trade-offs in
      detecting letters and comprehending text. Canadian
      Journal of Experimental Psychology, 59(3), 159-167.
• Rawlinson, G.E. (1976). The significance of letter
      position in word recognition. Unpublished PhD
      Thesis, Psychology Department, University of
      Nottingham, Nottingham UK.
                                                          22