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Updated: Aug 6, 2026

Comparing the Frequency Effect Between the Lexical Decision and Naming Tasks in Chinese
Published on: April 1, 2016
Phonology can help or hurt the perception of print
J C Ziegler1, G C Van Orden, A M Jacobs
1Centre de Recherche en Neurosciences Cognitives, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Marseille, France. ziegler@lnf.cnrs-mrs.fr
Abstract:
Phonological manipulations affect performance in a letter search task that requires only a shallow level of processing. In Experiment 1, phonology reduced accuracy in the letter search task when a pseudohomophone (GAIM) contained a target letter ("i") that was missing in the spelling of its (nonpresented) sound-alike base word (GAME). In Experiment 2, phonology increased accuracy in the letter search task when the target letter was present in both the spelling of the pseudohomophone and the spelling of its sound-alike base word ("m" in GAIM and GAME). In Experiment 3, we showed that the phonology-hurts effect of Experiment 1 is not peculiar to nonword letter strings but generalizes to familiar words. In Experiment 4, we obtained a phonology-hurts effect on correct response times when stimuli were visible until participants responded (stimuli were not masked).
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