Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 18, 2026

Lexical Decision Task for Studying Written Word Recognition in Adults with and without Dementia or Mild Cognitive Impairment
Published on: June 25, 2019
Single- versus dual-process models of lexical decision performance: insights from response time distributional
Melvin J Yap1, David A Balota, Michael J Cortese
1Department of Psychology, Washington University, St. Louis, MO 63130, USA.
Abstract:
This article evaluates 2 competing models that address the decision-making processes mediating word recognition and lexical decision performance: a hybrid 2-stage model of lexical decision performance and a random-walk model. In 2 experiments, nonword type and word frequency were manipulated across 2 contrasts (pseudohomophone-legal nonword and legal-illegal nonword). When nonwords became more wordlike (i.e., BRNTA vs. BRANT vs. BRANE), response latencies to nonwords were slowed and the word frequency effect increased. More important, distributional analyses revealed that the Nonword Type = Word Frequency interaction was modulated by different components of the response time distribution, depending on the specific nonword contrast. A single-process random-walk model was able to account for this particular set of findings more successfully than the hybrid 2-stage model.
Related Concept Videos
Language and Cognition
Decision Making
Automatic decision-making is fast, intuitive, and relies on gut feelings...
Pharmacodynamic Models: Direct Effect Model and Indirect Response Model
Lateralization

