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Cognitive effort and the word frequency effect in recognition and lexical decision
The American Journal of Psychology
|January 1, 1987
Summary
Low frequency words demand more cognitive effort, leading to better recognition. This enhanced processing explains word frequency effects in recognition memory.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive psychology
- Psycholinguistics
- Memory research
Background:
- Word frequency is a known factor influencing cognitive tasks.
- Previous research suggests frequency effects in various language processing tasks.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the role of cognitive effort in word frequency effects.
- To compare cognitive effort during different study tasks for word recognition.
- To examine the relationship between processing depth and recognition accuracy.
Main Methods:
- Assessing cognitive effort for high and low frequency words during a study phase for recognition.
- Administering a lexical decision task (LDT) to measure cognitive effort during incidental processing.
- Testing word recognition performance after each task.
Main Results:
- Low frequency words required greater cognitive effort during study compared to high frequency words.
- Words studied with greater effort (low frequency) were recognized better.
- Cognitive effort during an incidental LDT was comparable to effort during a recognition-focused study phase.
- Recognition performance after the LDT mirrored that after a direct recognition study task.
Conclusions:
- Low frequency words undergo more extensive cognitive processing than high frequency words.
- This difference in processing depth is a significant factor contributing to word frequency effects in recognition memory.
- Cognitive effort is a key mediator in the relationship between word frequency and memory performance.