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An experiment was conducted in which subjects matched upper and lower case versions of well-known abbreviations, such as BBC and etc, and meaningless controls. “Same” RT showed a familiarity effect for upper case versions of abbreviations such as BBC and GPO, but not for the lower case versions bbc and gpo. The converse did not occur for abbreviations such as etc, which were thought to occur most frequently in lower case. The “different” RT was inhibited by familiarity, with pairs such as IBM GPO being classified less rapidly than their lower case versions or controls. These effects occurred for subjects instructed to report “No” for “same” displays and “Yes” for “different” displays as well as for subjects given a conventional decision-report assignment. Some implications of these results for an account of the manner in which familiarity affects graphemic comparison processes are considered.

Campbell (1983) demonstrated that nonword spelling may be influenced by the spelling patterns of previously heard, rhyming words (“lexical priming”). We report an experiment that compares two nonword spelling tasks: an experimental (“priming”) task, in which nonwords were preceded by rhyming words of different spellings (as in Campbell's task), and a free-spelling task in which only nonwords are presented. The frequency of production of critical spelling patterns was significantly greater in the experimental task than in the free-spelling task (a lexical priming effect). However, there were, and equally for both tasks, significant and substantial effects of sound-to-spelling contingency (i.e. the frequency with which spelling patterns represent vowel phonemes in words): subjects produced more high-contingency (i.e. common) spelling patterns of vowels than low-contingency (rare) spellings. Further, within high-contingency spelling patterns, subjects more frequently produced the most common spelling correspondence of vowels than the second most common spelling. The results are interpreted within a proposed model of assembled spelling, in which it is suggested that there exist a set of probabilistic sound-to-spelling mappings that relate vowel phonemes to weighted lists of alternative spelling patterns ordered by sound-to-spelling contingency, but that the selection of a spelling pattern from such lists is open to lexical influence.

The processing of two spatial terms which refer to proximity and distance, near and far, was investigated in a word-picture comparison task. Two alternative hypotheses were tested, one based on the notion of linguistic markedness and supporting the positive status of far, and the other based on semantic-pragmatic factors and proposing that near is the positive member of the pair. An analysis of the true-false decision latencies indicated that near was generally verified faster than far in judgments in which the terms were used to describe both ego-to-object and object-to-object distance. A third experiment addressed the question of whether the advantage obtained in the verification of near may be accounted for in terms of the priority of the interpersonal dimension of representation relative to the objective one. The results are discussed with regard to the semantic representation of the two words.

The results of a cognitive experimental analysis of the reading functions of four developmentally dyslexic subjects are presented. Data are considered on an individual basis in an attempt to specify the primary source of disturbance in each case, and the manner in which the normal course of reading development has been distorted. Subject RO showed an effect on the analytic functioning of the visual processor, which affected speed of non-word reading, but appeared not to have prevented the construction of a normal visual word recognition system. In subject LT a phonological impairment was implicated, and this was associated with a pattern of performance similar to that of adult phonological dyslexics. Subjects GS and SE gave evidence of serial letter-by-letter reading (impaired wholistic function of the visual processor), which produced a pattern not unlike that of adult surface dyslexics (effects of spelling regularity, regularisation errors). The manner in which these impairments might disrupt the development and organisation of visual word recognition is discussed.

Campbell (1983) demonstrated that nonword spelling may be influenced by the spelling patterns of previously heard, rhyming words (“lexical priming”). We report an experiment that compares two nonword spelling tasks: an experimental (“priming”) task, in which nonwords were preceded by rhyming words of different spellings (as in Campbell's task), and a free-spelling task in which only nonwords are presented. The frequency of production of critical spelling patterns was significantly greater in the experimental task than in the free-spelling task (a lexical priming effect). However, there were, and equally for both tasks, significant and substantial effects of sound-to-spelling contingency (i.e. the frequency with which spelling patterns represent vowel phonemes in words): subjects produced more high-contingency (i.e. common) spelling patterns of vowels than low-contingency (rare) spellings. Further, within high-contingency spelling patterns, subjects more frequently produced the most common spelling correspondence of vowels than the second most common spelling. The results are interpreted within a proposed model of assembled spelling, in which it is suggested that there exist a set of probabilistic sound-to-spelling mappings that relate vowel phonemes to weighted lists of alternative spelling patterns ordered by sound-to-spelling contingency, but that the selection of a spelling pattern from such lists is open to lexical influence.

The paper reports studies of segmentation performance by a Nursery group of children, who had not yet started to learn to read, and by Primary 1 and 2 groups, who were in the early stages of learning by a standard method of whole word acquisition combined with letter-sound learning. Rhyme and alliteration production tasks were applied, together with segmentation tasks requiring division of monosyllabic words or non-words of simple or complex structure into two parts, three parts, or as many parts as possible. Performance was related to the hierarchical model of the syllable which distinguishes a two-dimensional (2D) level (onset/rime), a three-dimensional (3D) level (initial consonants, vowel, terminal consonants) and many-dimensional (nD) level (phonemes). The hypothesis that ‘phonological awareness’ (PA) normally develops down the hierarchy, from larger to smaller units, predicts that segmentation ability should emerge in the sequence 2D ? 3D ? nD. In practice, the reverse of this order was found. The results are discussed in relation to theories of the relationship between literacy development and the different levels of PA.

Subjects reacted to coloured season and month names by naming the season associated with the print colour of the word, or by naming the season opposite to the one associated with the print colour. Reactions were facilitated in both tasks when the word on the display named the season associated with the colour or was a month belonging to that season. Opposite season naming was not facilitated when the word named the response which the subject made. A comparable effect of print colour was found when subjects reacted to season names by naming the colour associated with the name, or with its opposite. These results suggest that Stroop congruity and interference effects occur during conceptual encoding, and not during response production.

Subjects reacted to coloured season and month names by naming the season associated with the print colour of the word, or by naming the season opposite to the one associated with the print colour. Reactions were facilitated in both tasks when the word on the display named the season associated with the colour or was a month belonging to that season. Opposite season naming was not facilitated when the word named the response which the subject made. A comparable effect of print colour was found when subjects reacted to season names by naming the colour associated with the name, or with its opposite. These results suggest that Stroop congruity and interference effects occur during conceptual encoding, and not during response production.

When questioned, many subjects reported thinking of the months of the year in terms of a spatial ‘form’. Experiment II demonstrated that the RT profile generated when subjects made centre-end or first/second half judgements about month positions was similar to that obtained for cued locations on a spatial array. This evidence for a linear representation contrasted with results from a forward-backward shift task (Experiment III) which suggested a directionally asymmetric circular representation. Retrieval of month names from cued locations on horizontal, vertical, or circular spatial arrays showed an effect of congruity of the external display and the subject's professed form (Experiment IV). There was an advantage for central locations in retrieval of month-digit and digit-month equivalences (Experiment V). Implications of these results for an account of the internal representation of the months are discussed.

An experiment was conducted in which subjects matched upper and lower case versions of well-known abbreviations, such as BBC and etc, and meaningless controls. "Same" RT showed a familiarity effect for upper case versions of abbreviations such as BBC and GPO, but not for the lower case versions bbc and gpo. The converse did not occur for abbreviations such as etc, which were thought to occur most frequently in lower case. The "different" RT was inhibited by familiarity, with pairs such as IBM GPO being classified less rapidly than their lower case versions or controls. These effects occurred for subjects instructed to report "No" for "same" displays and "Yes" for "different" displays as well as for subjects given a conventional decision-report assignment. Some implications of these results for an account of the manner in which familiarity affects graphemic comparison processes are considered.

Two experiments are described which were designed to test the assumption that names of geometric shapes may be represented in memory as lists of the physical properties of the shapes they designate. In Experiment I subjects reported “same”-“different” judgements in response to pairs of concentric shapes, or a shape name printed inside a shape. Visual confusions occurred in both tasks, suggesting that names are converted to descriptions of shape properties prior to comparison. In Experiment II pairs of shape names were classified by reference to a rule which was stated in terms of physical features of their referents. This task also provided evidence that classification times were sensitive to variations in the similarity of the shapes designated by the names.

Twelve undergraduate subjects classified the word-shape configurations circle/CIRCLE, square/SQUARE, circle/SQUARE and square/CIRCLE by reporting "yes" for a relationship of congruence, and "no" for a relationship of incongruence. The latency of initiation of these reports was recorded, measured from the simultaneous onset of the displays. The order in which the word and shape were inspected had consistent effects on the latency, times being shorter where the word was seen before the shape. The relevance of this finding to an account of the conversion operations involved in a word-shape comparison is discussed.

Four word-shape pairs, circle/CIRCLE, square/SQUARE, circle/SQUARE, square/CIRCLE, were presented under conditions of simultaneous onset to 48 subjects. Subjects were instructed to report whether the pair could be classified as same or different by saying "yes" or "no" as rapidly as possible. Latencies of these judgements were measured from the simultaneous onset of the displays to the initiation of the subject's verbal response. The pair circle/CIRCLE was reported as same faster than the pair square/SQUARE. No consistent differences were obtained between the two mismatching pairs. However, latencies to report a mismatch were consistently longer than latencies to report a match.

Two experiments are described in which subjects matched written verbal descriptions against pictures of geometric shapes. The first experiment demonstrated that a difference in reaction time between simultaneously displayed description picture and picture-picture combinations was entirely eliminated when a I-S delay occurred between the stimuli, implying that the description might be converted to a pictorial form of coding. A second experiment assessed the effects of variation in the complexity of the verbal description on description-picture comparison times, where the two displays might be presented simultaneously, or successively, with the description first, or the picture first. Complexity interacted with presentation conditions, having its greatest effect on the Simultaneous condition and least effect on the Successive condition in which the description preceded the picture. Some theoretical implications of these results are discussed.

Two experiments are described which were designed to test the assumption that names of geometric shapes may be represented in memory as lists of the physical properties of the shapes they designate. In Experiment I subjects reported "same"-"different" judgements in response to pairs of concentric shapes, or a shape name printed inside a shape. Visual confusions occurred in both tasks, suggesting that names are converted to descriptions of shape properties prior to comparison. In Experiment II pairs of shape names were classified by reference to a rule which was stated in terms of physical features of their referents. This task also provided evidence that classification times were sensitive to variations in the similarity of the shapes designated by the names.

Subjects gave grouped multiple reports of the congruence of each member of arrays of one, two or three word-shape or shape-shape pairs, and a measure was taken of the time elapsing between onset of the array and initiation of a multiple yes/no report. Double and triple reports were initiated less rapidly than single reports. Replicated arrays, involving repetition of a display pair, gave similar response times for double and triple reports, and were classified faster than non-replicated arrays requiring the same over report. In the case of non-replicated arrays triple reports were initiated less rapidly than double reports. Both classes of array showed substantial effects for congruence, giving slow response times where all pairs in the array were incongruent or where the lefthand or first reported display was incongruent.

Four word-shape pairs, circle/CIRCLE, square/SQUARE, circle/SQUARE, square/CIRCLE, were presented under conditions of simultaneous onset to 48 subjects. Subjects were instructed to report whether the pair could be classified as same or different by saying “yes” or “no” as rapidly as possible. Latencies of these judgements were measured from the simultaneous onset of the displays to the initiation of the subject's verbal response. The pair circle/CIRCLE was reported as same faster than the pair square/SQUARE. No consistent differences were obtained between the two mismatching pairs. However, latencies to report a mismatch were consistently longer than latencies to report a match.

Subjects gave grouped multiple reports of the congruence of each member of arrays of one, two or three word-shape or shape-shape pairs, and a measure was taken of the time elapsing between onset of the array and initiation of a multiple yes/no report. Double and triple reports were initiated less rapidly than single reports. Replicated arrays, involving repetition of a display pair, gave similar response times for double and triple reports, and were classified faster than non-replicated arrays requiring the same over report. In the case of non-replicated arrays triple reports were initiated less rapidly than double reports. Both classes of array showed substantial effects for congruence, giving slow response times where all pairs in the array were incongruent or where the lefthand or first reported display was incongruent.

Twelve undergraduate subjects classified the word-shape configurations circle/CIRCLE, square/SQUARE, circle/SQUARE and square/CIRCLE by reporting “yes” for a relationship of congruence, and “no” for a relationship of incongruence. The latency of initiation of these reports was recorded, measured from the simultaneous onset of the displays. The order in which the word and shape were inspected had consistent effects on the latency, times being shorter where the word was seen before the shape. The relevance of this finding to an account of the conversion operations involved in a word-shape comparison is discussed.

Two experiments are described in which subjects matched written verbal descriptions against pictures of geometric shapes. The first experiment demonstrated that a difference in reaction time between simultaneously displayed description picture and picture-picture combinations was entirely eliminated when a I-S delay occurred between the stimuli, implying that the description might be converted to a pictorial form of coding. A second experiment assessed the effects of variation in the complexity of the verbal description on description-picture comparison times, where the two displays might be presented simultaneously, or successively, with the description first, or the picture first. Complexity interacted with presentation conditions, having its greatest effect on the Simultaneous condition and least effect on the Successive condition in which the description preceded the picture. Some theoretical implications of these results are discussed.