The role of low-spatial frequencies in lexical decision and masked priming.
Spatial frequency filtering was used to test the hypotheses that low-spatial frequency information in printed text can: (1) lead to a rapid lexical decision or (2) facilitate word recognition. Adult proficient readers made lexical decisions in unprimed and masked repetition priming experiments with unfiltered, low-pass, high-pass and notch filtered letter strings. In the unprimed experiments, a filtered target was presented for 105 or 400 ms followed by a pattern mask. Sensitivity (d') was lowest for the low-pass filtered targets at both durations with a bias towards a 'non-word' response. Sensitivity was higher in the high-pass and notch filter conditions. In the priming experiments, a forward mask was followed by a filtered prime then an unfiltered target. Primed words, but not non-words, were identified faster than unprimed words in both the low-pass and high-pass filtered conditions. These results do not support a unique role for low-spatial frequency information in either facilitating or making rapid lexical decisions.
Boden
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University of British Columbia, Department of Ophthalmology, 4480 Oak Street, Vancouver, BC, Canada. catherine_boden@hotmail.com
Giaschi
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D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D003657:Decision Making; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D010470:Perceptual Masking; D011578:Psycholinguistics; D011930:Reaction Time; D011932:Reading; D021641:Recognition, Psychology; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D014825:Vocabulary; D055815:Young Adult