The word superiority effect: Dependence on short-term memory factors

Abstract

Two experiments were conducted to test whether the word superiority effect, that letters in words are perceived more accurately than letters in nonwords, could be attributed to short-term memory (STM) factors. One hypothesis attributed the word superiority effect to superior maintenance of words in STM. Another hypothesis was that letters in STM have considerable positional uncertainty which is overcome by the orthographic characteristics of the words. Both experiments utilized a simultaneous same-different task, where subjects compared two four-letter strings, one on top of the other, which were presented tachistoscopically. In Experiment I, the two presented strings were either both words or both nonwords and a word superiority effect was obtained. This result was interpreted as disconfirming the STM maintenance hypothesis. In Experiment II, letters were removed from one of the two letter strings, making the serial position of the comparison unambiguous. The word superiority effect disappeared. This result was interpreted as supporting the positional uncertainty hypothesis.