Errors in proofreading: Evidence for the use of word shape in word recognition

Abstract

Subjects were given a passage to read for meaning while at the same time checking off any misspellings. Critical words in the text were mutilated by either deleting or substituting letters. In half of these mutilations, an ascender in the word was removed, resulting in a large change in the overall shape of the word. In the first experiment, it was found that mutilations involving the substitution of letters were more likely to be noticed than mutilations involving deletions. For both types of mutilation, alterations to word shape were more often noticed than alterations that preserved word shape. When word shape cues were eliminated by using mixed-case stimuli in Experiment 2, the shape effect was abolished. The results are interpreted as evidence for a supraletter feature corresponding to word shape. © 1983 Psychonomic Society, Inc.