Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Experiment Videos

Instructions and word bias in a lexical decision task.

C Darren Piercey1

  • 1Psychology Department, University of New Brunswick, Bag Service No. 45444, Fredericton, NB, Canada. piercey@unb.ca

Psychological Reports
|September 22, 2005
PubMed
Summary

Participants show a strong bias towards identifying words, even when instructed otherwise. This inherent word recognition advantage, likely from prior experience, is resistant to changes in task instructions.

Related Concept Videos

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

Reducing Anxiety Using Self-Help Virtual Reality Cognitive Behavioral Therapy.

Games for health journal·2015
Same author

Modeling performance at the trial level within a diffusion framework: a simple yet powerful method for increasing efficiency via error detection and correction.

Canadian journal of experimental psychology = Revue canadienne de psychologie experimentale·2009
Same author

Emphasizing nonword decisions in word-decision performance.

Psychological reports·2008
See all related articles

Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Experimental Psychology
  • Psycholinguistics

Background:

  • Lexical decision tasks (LDTs) typically show faster and more accurate word identification than nonword identification.
  • Standard instructions in LDTs emphasize word identification.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate if altering instructions to prioritize nonword identification can modify the typical word advantage in LDTs.
  • To determine the malleability of the word superiority effect based on task focus.

Main Methods:

  • A lexical decision task was administered to 48 participants.
  • Participants were divided into two groups: one receiving standard word-focused instructions, the other receiving nonword-focused instructions.
  • Performance (accuracy and speed) in identifying words versus nonwords was measured.

Main Results:

  • A significant main effect of item type (word vs. nonword) was observed, confirming the general word advantage.
  • No significant interaction was found between instruction type (word vs. nonword focus) and item type.
  • The manipulation of instructions did not alter the fundamental word identification advantage.

Conclusions:

  • The strong bias towards word identification in LDTs appears robust and resistant to instructional manipulation.
  • This suggests that prior experience and ingrained cognitive biases heavily influence lexical decision-making.
  • Findings highlight potential limitations in using instructional changes to modify fundamental cognitive effects in LDTs.

Related Experiment Videos