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Perceptual fluency and lexical access for function versus content words.

Sidney J Segalowitz¹, Korri Lane

¹Department of Psychology, Brock University, St. Catharines, Ontario, L2S 3A1, Canada sid.segalowitz@brocku.ca korrilane@yahoo.com http://www.psyc.brocku.ca/people/segalowitz.htm.

The Behavioral and Brain Sciences

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Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Function words are read faster than content words, regardless of appearance. This difference in lexical access is linked to perceptual fluency, resolving previous research inconsistencies.

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Area of Science:

Cognitive Psychology
Psycholinguistics
Neuroscience

Background:

Lexical access models debate the role of word class.
Previous studies yielded conflicting results on function vs. content word processing speed.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate if function words are accessed faster than content words during sentence reading.
To identify factors contributing to previous inconsistencies in findings.
To explore the relationship between lexical access speed and perceptual fluency.

Main Methods:

Analysis of single-word reading times within full sentences read for meaning.
Controlled for perceptual characteristics of words.
Considered word frequency and task demands.

Main Results:

Function words were accessed significantly faster than content words.
This effect was independent of perceptual characteristics.
Identified frequency range and task as critical factors in prior null findings.
Lexical access speed differences correlated with perceptual fluency.

Conclusions:

Function words exhibit faster lexical access than content words.
Perceptual fluency plays a key role in mediating these differences.
Findings reconcile prior conflicting literature and inform neurolinguistic models, including event-related potentials (ERPs).