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Word-fragment cuing: the lexical search hypothesis.
D L Nelson1, P D Keelean, M Negrao
1Department of Psychology, University of South Florida, Tampa 33620.
Summary
Word-fragment completion relies on lexical processing, not semantic meaning. This study confirms that accessing word form, not meaning, drives fragment completion success.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Psycholinguistics
- Memory Research
Background:
- Understanding word-fragment completion is key to cognitive models of memory retrieval.
- Previous research debated whether lexical or semantic processes dominate fragment completion.
Purpose of the Study:
- To test the hypothesis that word-fragment completion relies on lexical search, not semantic search.
- To differentiate the roles of lexical and semantic memory in fragment completion tasks.
Main Methods:
- Four experiments were conducted using word-fragment completion tasks.
- Manipulations involved the number of associates, lexical vs. semantic relatedness between lists, and search instructions.
- Performance was measured by fragment completion rates.
Main Results:
- Lexical relatedness, not semantic relatedness, caused retroactive interference.
- Focusing on word-level search facilitated completion, while generating letters did not.
- Completion success correlated with the number of lexically related words and missing letters.
Conclusions:
- Word-fragment completion is primarily driven by lexical processing.
- Semantic information does not significantly contribute to word-fragment completion.
- Findings support a lexical search model for fragment completion.