The enhancement effect in letter detection: Further evidence for the structural model of reading

Asher Koriat, Seth N. Greenberg

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

According to the structural model of reading (A. Koriat & S. N. Greenberg, 1994), the extraction of structure leads the way to the analysis of meaning. Consistent with this model, previous letter-detection studies have documented an inordinately high rate of letter omissions in function morphemes, suggesting that the cognitive representation of function morphemes is diminished once they have been utilized to set phrase structure. The present study revealed a new and complementary enhancement effect: Letter detection in content morphemes that immediately followed functors was superior to that of content morphemes positioned elsewhere in the text. Together these effects suggest an on-line figure-ground representation of text in which structural elements recede as semantic elements are pushed to the foreground.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1184-1195
Number of pages12
JournalJournal of Experimental Psychology: Learning Memory and Cognition
Volume22
Issue number5
DOIs
StatePublished - Sep 1996

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
  • Language and Linguistics
  • Linguistics and Language

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