Acurious effect with reversed letters explained by a theory of schema

Abstract

MRC Developmental Psychology Unit, Drayton House, Gordon Street, London, W.C.I., England It takes longer to find a normal N embedded in a context of reversed Ns than it takes to find a reversed N embedded in a context of normal Ns. This is true for other letters as well and can be explained by a theory of schema. This theory holds that there is a schema for the normal form of a letter based on past experience, and that this schema is not a static but a flexible construct which is sensitive to the immediate cognitive context. This property of the schema enables recognition even if the letter is presented in a deviating form. A deviation, such as mirror reversal, may at times be as acceptable as the normal form of the letter. This is the case when context stimuli in a scanning task consist of reversed letters. If the target stimulus is the normal form of the letter, it is more difficult to detect since both context and target are accepted as the same letter. © 1974 Psychonomic Society, Inc.