Relationship between Context Effects and Mode of Lexical Access during Word Recognition

Abstract

TWO EXPERIMENTS were conducted to investigate the relationship between preceding sentence context effects and mode of lexical access. Context effects were greater in a pronunciation decision task (Experiment 1) than in a lexical decision task (Experiment 2). More specifically, when the task required judging whether the target item did or did not sound like a word, decision times were faster for those target items which sounded congruous with preceding context (but which did not always look like a congruous word). In addition, decision times were slowed for those targets which neither sounded nor looked congruous with the context. When the task required judging whether the target was or was not a word, the only context effect obtained was that of facilitation for those targets which both sounded and looked congruous with the context. The results serve to extend the processing-time explanation of context effects and to indicate that context effects are greater when reliance upon phonological input is increased as compared to predominant reliance on the direct visual access route to the lexicon.