LEXICAL EFFECT
The effect of a characteristic of a particular lexical item upon the ease with which it is retrieved from the lexicon. Evidence supports the following:
A frequency effect, with frequent words recognised more rapidly than infrequent.
A degradation effect, with words that are clearly presented recognised more rapidly than those which are not.
A word/non-word effect, with non-words rejected more quickly if they cannot form a possible English word (LGAJ) than if they follow the rules of English orthography (FEMP). The closer their resemblance to an actual word, the harder they are to reject.
A word superiority effect, with letters identified more quickly in a word than in a string of other letters or even a string of XXXs. This suggests that part of the process of recognising whole words involves taking note of their constituent letters. However, there is also a pseudo-word superiority effect, where a letter is detected faster in a non-word that resembles an actual word (MAVE) than in one that does not (RVIH).
A neighbourhood effect, with a written word such as FEED processed more quickly because all analogous words (WEED, SEED etc.) bear the same pronunciation. The processing of a written word such as HEAD is said to be constrained by a conflict between two possible pronunciations for its rime (DEAD etc. vs BEAD etc.). The effect has particularly been evidenced in different reaction times to non words (GEAD vs GEED).
A length effect, with longer words taking more time to process. This suggests that reading operates at the level of letter recognition as well as whole-word recognition.
An imageability effect, where words that are easy to visualise are more readily recalled than those (e.g. abstract words) that are not.
See also: Lexical access, Neighbourhood, Priming effect
Further reading: Garnham (1985: 42–6)
