Abstract
An interaction of word frequency and word regularity has typically been observed in naming and lexical decision experiments in which, in addition to an overall effect of word frequency, responses to low-frequency exception words are slower than those to low-frequency regular words, while no such difference occurs with high-frequency words. The only eye movement study to examine this effect in reading (Inhoff & Topolski, 1994) reported only transient effects of regularity. In the present experiment, we examined the frequency X regularity interaction using different stimuli than those of Inhoff and Topolski and also varied the parafoveal preview of the target word prior to fixation. When the preview was valid, the frequency X regularity interaction appeared. However, with an invalid preview, the effect of regularity disappeared. The results suggest that the activation of phonological codes is a very early component of reading.
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This research was conducted while S.C.S. was supported by a McDonnell-Pew Postdoctoral Research Fellowship at the University of Oregon and K.R. was supported by a Research Scientist Award (MHO 1255) from the National Institute of Mental Health and Grants HD 17246 and HD26765 from the National Institutes of Health.
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Sereno, S.C., Rayner, K. Spelling-sound regularity effects on eye fixations in reading. Perception & Psychophysics 62, 402–409 (2000). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03205559
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03205559