Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 29, 2026
06:48
Lexical Decision Task for Studying Written Word Recognition in Adults with and without Dementia or Mild Cognitive Impairment
Published on: June 25, 2019
Lexical processing while deciding what task to perform: reading aloud in the context of the task set paradigm
Shannon O'Malley1, Derek Besner
1Cognition and Perception Unit (CPU), Psychology Department, University of Waterloo, Canada. somalley@uwaterloo.ca
Consciousness and Cognition
|September 14, 2011
Summary
Word processing can occur even when people are busy with other tasks. Lexical processing requires fewer resources than sublexical processing, which can cause bottlenecks.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive psychology
- Psycholinguistics
- Neuroscience
Background:
- Cognitive tasks often require shared mental resources.
- Understanding resource allocation is key to explaining cognitive limitations.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate whether lexical and sublexical word processing rely on distinct cognitive resources.
- To determine if concurrent task demands affect lexical versus sublexical processing differently.
Main Methods:
- Two experiments were conducted.
- Participants performed a lexical or sublexical task while simultaneously decoding a task-cuing cue.
- Response times and accuracy were measured.
Main Results:
- Direct evidence shows lexical word processing occurs despite concurrent task cue decoding.
- Sublexical processing was significantly impaired by the concurrent task cue.
- Lexical processing appears to be more resource-efficient than sublexical processing.
Conclusions:
- Lexical and sublexical processing utilize different cognitive resources.
- Lexical access is relatively independent of task-switching demands, unlike sublexical processing.
- Cognitive architecture allows for parallel processing of some information, with resource limitations primarily affecting more demanding processes.
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