Testing the BOSS hypothesis: Evidence for position-insensitive orthographic priming in the lexical decision task

Abstract

One recent conceptualization of the process of lexical access, the basic orthographic syllabic structure (BOSS) hypothesis, has been developed from a number of separate empirical and theoretical sources, and implicates distinct characteristics of the word recognition process. Using a lexical decision]priming paradigm, the present study tested all such characteristics simultaneously, together with a control condition in which simple sequences of letters were repeated within pairs of words, occupying different serial positions in each member of a pair. No evidence was obtained to suggest that BOSSs enjoy a special psychological status. Yet evidence from the same experiment suggests that words are processed via multiletter units in the lexical decision task, and that these units are not position specific, because they produce facilitation even when presented in different serial positions across primes and targets. Two interpretations of this position-insensitive orthographic priming are presented. © 1986 Psychonomic Society, Inc.