The importance of vowel diacritics for the temporary retention of high and low frequency Hebrew words of varying syllabic length.
This study investigates the importance of vowel diacritics for the retention of Hebrew word lists, with word lists being manipulated along the dimension of word frequency and syllabic length. Eighty university students participated in the study. Half of the participants (40) were tested with the word lists presented in fully-pointed (voweled) Hebrew while the other half (40) were given the word lists in unpointed Hebrew (with vowel diacritics removed). Analyses of each group's recall rates and recall-order accuracy indicate that, overall, the presence of vowel diacritics had no facilitating effect on the participants' quantitative and qualitative Short Term Memory (STM) performance. This was found to be true whether word frequency (high vs. medium to low) or syllabic length (mono vs. trisyllabic) were computed as within-subject factors. Attempts to adequately interpret the absence of a pointing effect on STM performance based upon Orthographic Depth Hypothesis (ODH) and Grain Size Theory (GST) proved unfruitful. The authors propose an adaptation of the GST to the peculiarities of Hebrew orthography and discuss a morphology-centered grain-size theory (MGST).
Department of Education, Western Galilee College, Akko, Israel. vered.vaknin@gmail.com
Vered
V
Vaknin-Nusbaum
Paul
P
Miller
D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007557:Israel; D007802:Language; D008297:Male; D008570:Memory, Short-Term; D011578:Psycholinguistics; D011932:Reading; D021641:Recognition, Psychology; D012153:Retention, Psychology; D012660:Semantics; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology; D014706:Verbal Learning; D055815:Young Adult
Dev Sci. 2006 Sep;9(5):439-40; discussion 451-3
16911440
Cognition. 1995 May;55(2):151-218; discussion 219-26
7789090
Psychol Rev. 1956 Mar;63(2):81-97
13310704
Psychol Bull. 2005 Jan;131(1):3-29
15631549
Dev Sci. 2006 Sep;9(5):429-36
16911438
Mem Cognit. 1985 Jan;13(1):37-44
4010512
Psychol Bull. 2008 Jul;134(4):584-615
18605821
Br J Psychol. 1985 May;76 ( Pt 2):161-73
4027485
J Exp Psychol Learn Mem Cogn. 1995 Mar;21(2):398-408
7738507
Psychol Bull. 1998 Jan;123(1):71-99
9461854
Cogn Neuropsychol. 2006 Sep;23(6):972-89
21049362
J Exp Psychol Learn Mem Cogn. 1994 Jan;20(1):116-29
8138782
J Deaf Stud Deaf Educ. 2002 Autumn;7(4):312-29
15451868
J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform. 1987 Feb;13(1):104-15
2951484