Letter Recall Task Using Low-Frequency (Non)words

Seppälä, A.J. (2021) Letter Recall Task Using Low-Frequency (Non)words. Bachelor thesis, Psychology.

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Abstract

Most word- and letter recognition models are built to explain word-to-letter-level tasks but cannot explain letter-level tasks, namely reporting a letter within a word. Previous studies, based on Conceptual Network, have shown a performance peak in perceiving third letter of nonwords, a hook-shaped distribution for nonwords, and word-superiority effect. Previous studies have also shown that preparational signals can impact letter recall accuracy via pre-activation of the spatial map. We propose that letter report should lead to a performance peak in letter recall report of the third letter with a centred preparational signal on the condition that these nonwords have a low-frequency word head. We conducted a study (N = 46) with a letter report task within a word to measure letter report accuracy, in which we manipulated preparational signal (centred vs. distributed), letter position (from one to five), and word type (word vs. nonword). Our results did not show a performance peak on position three letter. A proper hook-shaped distribution was not found in nonwords, although performance was higher for the first and last letters. Performance edge for words over nonwords was found. Although we were unable to find a performance peak in the third position of nonwords, in the global study a possible explanation for lack of performance peak was found since high- and low-frequency word heads were compared. Further studies should consider manipulating word tails as well as word heads.

Item Type:	Thesis (Bachelor)
Supervisor name:	Vries, P.H. de
Degree programme:	Psychology
Differentiation route:	Cognitive Psychology and Psychophysiology (CPP) [Bachelor Psychology]
Date Deposited:	23 Dec 2021 12:54
Last Modified:	23 Dec 2021 12:54
URI:	http://gmwpublic.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/22

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