ERIC Number: ED201969
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 1981
Pages: 11
Abstractor: N/A
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Visual and Acoustic Confusability of Target Letters and the Word Superiority Effect.
Chastain, Garvin; And Others
The hypothesis that word context reduces visual rather than acoustic confusion between possible targets was tested in a series of experiments. All involved tachistoscopic presentation of letter strings followed by a pattern mask. Data from eight college students showed that target letters that are confusable only visually and acoustically ("b" and "p") produced no greater word superiority effect (WSE) than targets that are confusable only visually ("c" and "g"). Accordingly, six new subjects demonstrated a WSE with "c" and "g," but none with acoustically similar but visually dissimilar "d" and "t." A final experiment with eight new subjects showed a WSE with only nonhomophones ("dusk"-"duck"). It was concluded that the WSE has a visual but not an acoustic basis. However, if targets are acoustically identical as well as visually confusable, the WSE is eliminated. Apparently some disruption, possibly in storage, occurs with acoustically identical targets but not with acoustically similar ones. (RL)
Publication Type: Reports - Research; Speeches/Meeting Papers
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A