Multicomponent analysis of the repetition effect in word identification and lexical decision
| dc.contributor.author | Freedman, Lawrence | |
| dc.contributor.supervisor | Masson, Michael E. J. | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2025-06-13T22:27:42Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2025-06-13T22:27:42Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 1985 | |
| dc.degree.department | Department of Psychology | |
| dc.description.abstract | The purpose of this study was to examine the mechanisms responsible for the repetition effect in word identification and lexical decision. The repetition effect refers to the facilitative effects of a prior presentation of a word on its later identification. An explanatory model of repetition effects was proposed in which facilitation in word identification and lexical decision is viewed as being based on memory for prior lexical access in modality-specific and modality-free systems of representation. Four experiments were conducted in order to explore the efficacy of the model. Experiments 1 through 3 employed a study- test format in which the test phase involved a visual-perceptual word identification task. The results from Experiments 1 and 2 indicated that repetition effects are sensitive to word-specific features demonstrated by the absence of orthographic (Experiment 1) and semantic (Experiment 2) facilitation in word identification. Facilitation was observed only when the same word was presented during study and test phases. In addition, although both visual and auditory study yielded significant facilitation when identical words were studied and tested, intramodal repetition produced greater facilitation than cross- modal repetition. The findings from Experiment 3 indicated that both visual and auditory encoding facilitated later word identification over a retention interval of 24 hours. Experiment 4 involved repeated presentation of homographs in a lexical decision task and demonstrated that the degree of facilitation in lexical decision was highly dependent upon repeating a specific homograph meaning across presentations. The results from the 4 experiments tentatively support a model of repetition effects that consists of two systems of representation. Repetition effects are seen as being based on memory for prior access to a specific lexical entry in a modality-specific system and a modality-free system. In these interactive lexical systems, exposure to a word produces a memory representation for access to the word's entry in each system. Activation of these memory representations facilitates identification when the word is later repeated. | |
| dc.description.scholarlevel | Graduate | |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://hdl.handle.net/1828/22382 | |
| dc.language.iso | en | |
| dc.rights | Available to the World Wide Web | |
| dc.title | Multicomponent analysis of the repetition effect in word identification and lexical decision | |
| dc.type | Thesis |