The generalizability of context effects on word recognition: A reconsideration of the roles of parafoveal priming and sentence context

In three experiments, subjects named target words preceded by congruous, incongruous, or neutral sentence contexts. There was no evidence that the recognition of the target word was affected by the semantic characteristics of a word presented immediately to the right of it. The nature of the preceding sentence context did affect target-naming speed. However, the magnitude of the context effect was considerably smaller in these experiments, in which nonterminal target words were used, than in previous experiments in which the target word was always the final word of the sentence, was highly predictable from the context, and was often semantically related to words in the sentence. The implications of these two findings for theories of reading and context effects are discussed.

[1]  Ira Fischler,et al.  Associative facilitation without expectancy in a lexical decision task. , 1977 .

[2]  T D STERLING,et al.  Sources of contextual constraint upon words in sentences. , 1959, Journal of experimental psychology.

[3]  Ira Fischler,et al.  Latency of associative activation in memory. , 1978 .

[4]  Tony Marcel,et al.  Unconscious Reading: Experiments on People Who Do Not Know That They Are Reading. , 1978 .

[5]  G. Kleiman,et al.  Sentence frame contexts and lexical decisions: Sentence-acceptability and word-relatedness effects , 1980, Memory & cognition.

[6]  Geoffrey Underwood,et al.  Lexical recognition of embedded unattended words: Some implications for reading processes☆ , 1981 .

[7]  W. Montague,et al.  Category norms of verbal items in 56 categories A replication and extension of the Connecticut category norms , 1969 .

[8]  D. Mitchell,et al.  The Effects of Context and Content on Immediate Processing in Reading , 1978 .

[9]  Herbert Rubenstein,et al.  Learning, prediction, and readability. , 1958 .

[10]  G. Underwood.  Attention, awareness, and hemispheric differences in word recognition , 1977, Neuropsychologia.

[11]  Keith E. Stanovich,et al.  Source of Inhibition in Experiments on the Effect of Sentence Context on Word Recognition. , 1982 .

[12]  G. McConkie,et al.  Integrating information across eye movements , 1980, Cognitive Psychology.

[13]  P. Merikle,et al.  Unconscious perception revisited , 1982, Perception & psychophysics.

[14]  Geoffrey Underwood,et al.  SEMANTIC INTERFERENCE FROM UNATTENDED PRINTED WORDS , 1976 .

[15]  J. Frederiksen,et al.  Spelling and sound: Approaches to the internal lexicon. , 1976 .

[16]  K. Stanovich,et al.  The effect of sentence context on ongoing word recognition: Tests of a two-process theory. , 1981 .

[17]  R. E. Schuberth,et al.  Effects of stimulus and contextual information on the lexical decision process , 1981, Memory & cognition.

[18]  Thomas H. Killion,et al.  Interaction of visual and cognitive effects in word recognition. , 1977 .

[19]  I. Fischler,et al.  Automatic and attentional processes in the effects of sentence contexts on word recognition , 1979 .

[20]  J. Wilding,et al.  Semantic interference from subliminal stimuli in a dichoptic viewing situation. , 1979, British journal of psychology.

[21]  David LaBerge,et al.  Automatic Semantic Processing of Unattended Words. , 1979 .

[22]  Don C. Mitchell,et al.  The process of reading : a cognitive analysis of fluent reading and learning to read , 1984 .

[23]  A W Inhoff,et al.  Parafoveal word perception: A case against semantic preprocessing , 1980, Perception & psychophysics.

[24]  K. Stanovich,et al.  Mechanisms of sentence context effects in reading: Automatic activation and conscious attention , 1979 .

[25]  Keith E. Stanovich,et al.  Automatic Contextual Facilitation in Readers of Three Ages. , 1978 .

[26]  K. Rayner,et al.  Contextual effects on word perception and eye movements during reading , 1981 .

[27]  A. Inhoff,et al.  Parafoveal word perception: a further case against semantic preprocessing. , 1982, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[28]  Carol A. Fowler,et al.  Lexical access with and without awareness , 1981 .

[29]  George W. McConkie,et al.  Language Constraints and the Functional Stimulus in Reading. Technical Report No. 194. , 1980 .

[30]  K. Stanovich.  TOWARD AN INTERACTIVE-COMPENSATORY MODEL OF INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF READING FLUENCY , 1980 .

[31]  R. E. Schuberth,et al.  Effects of Context on the Classification of Words and Nonwords. , 1977 .

[32]  M. Posner,et al.  Attention and cognitive control. , 1975 .

[33]  Michael J. Cosky,et al.  The role of letter recognition in word recognition , 1976, Memory & cognition.

[34]  K. Stanovich,et al.  On priming by a sentence context. , 1983, Journal of experimental psychology. General.

[35]  J L Bradshaw,et al.  Peripherally presented and unreported words may bias the perceived meaning of a centrally fixated homograph. , 1974, Journal of experimental psychology.

[36]  J. H. Neely.  Semantic priming and retrieval from lexical memory: Roles of inhibitionless spreading activation and limited-capacity attention. , 1977 .

[37]  C. Schiepers,et al.  Response latency and accuracy in visual word recogniton , 1980, Perception & psychophysics.

[38]  J. H. Neely.  Semantic priming and retrieval from lexical memory: Evidence for facilitatory and inhibitory processes , 1976, Memory & cognition.

[39]  J. H. Bertera,et al.  Masking of foveal and parafoveal vision during eye fixations in reading. , 1981, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[40]  George W. McConkie,et al.  On the Role and Control of Eye Movements in Reading , 1979 .

[41]  James L. McClelland,et al.  Expectations Increase the Benefit Derived from Parafoveal Visual Information in Reading Words Aloud. , 1981 .

[42]  K. Rayner,et al.  Expectations and Parafoveal Information in Reading: Comments on McClelland and O'Regan. , 1981 .

[43]  R. Schvaneveldt,et al.  Facilitation in recognizing pairs of words: evidence of a dependence between retrieval operations. , 1971, Journal of experimental psychology.

[44]  K R Paap,et al.  Parafoveal information is not sufficient to produce semantic or visual priming , 1981, Perception & psychophysics.

[45]  I. Fischler,et al.  Rapid processing of the meaning of sentences , 1980, Memory & cognition.

[46]  K. Stanovich,et al.  A Longitudinal Study of Sentence Context Effects in Second-Grade Children: Tests of an Interactive- Compensatory Model , 1981 .

[47]  G. Underwood.  Attention and the non-selective lexical access of ambiguous words. , 1980 .

[48]  Roger W. Schvaneveldt,et al.  Semantic Context and the Encoding of Words: Evidence for Two Modes of Stimulus Analysis. , 1981 .

[49]  E. B. Coleman,et al.  A set of thirty-six prose passages calibrated for complexity , 1967 .

[50]  S R Goldman,et al.  Reading skill and the identification of words in discourse context , 1979, Memory & cognition.

[51]  Thomas H. Carr,et al.  Early extraction of meaning from pictures and its relation to conscious identification , 1980 .