More words in the neighborhood: Interference in lexical decision due to deletion neighbors

This article reports two lexical decision experiments that provide evidence for the automatic activation of deletion neighbors—that is, words that overlap with the presented word save for the deletion of one letter. Experiment 1 showed slower and less accurateno decisions for nonwords with deletion neighbors (e.g.,come inscome), relative to control nonwords. Experiment 2 showed slower and less accurate yes decisions for words with higher frequency deletion neighbors, relative to control words. An important methodological implication of these results is that stimuli should be equated using a different definition of orthographic neighborhood from that which is currently the norm. The results also have significant theoretical implications for input coding schemes and the mechanisms underlying recognition of familiar words.