Effect of word length on anagram solution time

Abstract

Ten Ss were presented with 80 anagrams, which varied in length from three to 10 letters. The cumulative distribution of solution times for each number of letters was fitted by the equation for an hyperbola. This equation had two empirical constants: L, the limiting percentage of solutions, which was approached asymptotically with increasing time; and R, a constant inversely related to the rate at which the limit was approached. In general, both the limit and the rate of approach decreased as anagram length increased. The time required to solve a given percentage of anagrams increased with anagram length, but the increase in solution time did not keep pace with the progressively larger increments in the number of different letter arrangements made possible by each additional letter. In fact, the increment in solution time produced by each additional letter became smaller when anagram length exceeded six letters. Two properties of the English language may have facilitated solution of the longer anagrams: the occurrence of familiar suffixes in words longer than six letters, and the decreasing number of words of a given length above six or seven letters.