Critical influence of particular experiences in the perception of letters, words, and phrases

Abstract

Letters are generally easier to identify in regular words or pseudowords than alone or in irregular items. This advantage seems to imply that word perception depends on knowledge of general structure. We found, however, that the perceptual advantage of letters in pseudowords over single letters could be increased by preexposing the pseudowords, or reversed by preexposing the single letters. Similarly, preexposure of words alone or in phrases resulted in a perceptual advantage for whichever display had been experienced. The success of identification also depended on the type of task previously performed on test items, and on the reinstatement of prior processing and perceptual context, rather than on only the test items and task themselves. We concluded that memory preserves information about the details of particular perceptual experiences, and that identification depends critically on the similarity of current demands and processing context to the demands and contexts of particular previous experiences. © 1988 Psychonomic Society, Inc.