Abstract
Does the word-superiority effect on letter discrimination result in a word-superiority effect on duration judgments? We examined this question in five experiments. In the first four experiments, we have demonstrated that (1) words shown for 32-80 msec were judged as presented longer than nonwords shown for the same duration; (2) this word-superiority effect persists if the stimuli are shown for an objective duration of up to 250 msec; and (3) these effects can be extended to judgments of figure-ground contrast and letter size. These findings extend existing data on effects of processing fluency on perceptual judgments. In Experiment 5, we found that duration judgments were higher for words than for pronounceable nonwords, and duration judgments were higher for pronounceable nonwords than for nonpronounceable nonwords. We discuss the implications of this finding for the discrepancy-attribution hypothesis (Whittlesea & Williams, 1998, 2000, 2001).
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Allan, L. G. (1979). The perception of time.Perception & Psychophysics,26, 340–354.
Avant, L. L., &Lyman, P. J. (1975). Stimulus familiarity modifies perceived duration in precognition visual processing.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance,1, 205–213.
Avant, L. L., Lyman, P. J., &Antes, J. (1975). Effects of stimulus familiarity upon judged visual duration.Perception & Psychophysics,17, 253–262.
Begg, I. M., Anas, A., &Farinacci, S. (1992). Dissociation of processes in belief: Source recollection, statement familiarity, and the illusion of truth.Journal of Experimental Psychology: General,121, 446–458.
Cohen, J. [D.], MacWhinney, B., Flatt, M., &Provost, J. (1993). PsyScope: An interactive graphic system for designing and control ling experiments in the psychology laboratory using Macintosh computers.Behavior Research Methods, Instruments, & Computers,25, 257–271.
Goldinger, S. D., Kleider, H. M., &Shelley, E. (1999). The marriage of perception and memory: Creating two-way illusions with words and voices.Memory & Cognition,27, 328–338.
Hager, W., &Hasselhorn, M. (Eds.) (1994).Handbuch deutschsprachiger Wortnormen [Handbook of German word norms]. Göttingen: Hogrefe.
Helson, H. (1964).Adaptation level theory: An experimental and systematic approach to behavior. New York: Harper.
Jacoby, L. L., Allan, L. G., Collins, J. C., &Larwill, L. K. (1988). Memory influences subjective experience: Noise judgments.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition,14, 240–247.
Jacoby, L. L., &Dallas, M. (1981). On the relationship between autobiographical memory and perceptual learning.Journal of Experimental Psychology: General,110, 306–340.
Jacoby, L. L., Kelley, C. M., Brown, J., &Jasechko, J. (1989). Becoming famous overnight: Limits on the ability to avoid unconscious influences of the past.Journal of Personality & Social Psychology,56, 326–338.
Kelley, C. M., &Jacoby, L.L. (1996). Adult egocentrism: Subjective experience versus analytic bases for judgment.Journal of Memory & Language,35, 157–175.
Kelley, C. M., &Rhodes, M. G. (2002). Making sense and nonsense of experience: Attributions in memory and judgment. In B. Ross (Ed.),The psychology of learning and motivation: Advances in research and theory (Vol. 41, pp. 293–320). New York: Elsevier, Academic Press.
Marohn, K. M., &Hochhaus, L. (1988). Semantic priming increases and repetition priming decreases apparent stimulus duration.Journal of General Psychology,115, 51–61.
Masson, M. E. J., &Caldwell, J. I. (1998). Conceptually driven episodes create perceptual misattributions.Acta Psychologica,98, 183–210.
Prinzmetal, W. (1992). The word-superiority effect does not require a T-scope.Perception & Psychophysics,51, 473–484.
Prinzmetal, W., &Silvers, B. (1994). The word without the tachistoscope.Perception & Psychophysics,55, 296–312.
Reber, R., &Schwarz, N. (1999). Effects of perceptual fluency on judgments of truth.Consciousness & Cognition,8, 338–342.
Reber, R., Winkielman, P., &Schwarz, N. (1998). Effects of perceptual fluency on affective judgments.Psychological Science,9, 45–48.
Reber, R., Wurtz, P., &Zimmermann, T. D. (2004). Exploring “fringe” consciousness: The subjective experience of perceptual fluency and its objective bases.Consciousness & Cognition,13, 47–60.
Reicher, G. M. (1969). Perceptual recognition as a function of meaningfulness of the stimulus material.Journal of Experimental Psychology,81, 275–280.
Reingold, E. M., &Merikle, P. M. (1988). Using direct and indirect measures to study perception without awareness.Perception & Psychophysics,44, 563–575.
Ruoff, A. (1981).Häufigkeitswörterbuch gesprochener Sprache [Dictionary of word frequencies in spoken language]. Tübingen: Niemeyer.
Thomas, E. A. C., &Weaver, W. B. (1975). Cognitive processing and time perception.Perception & Psychophysics,17, 363–367.
Toth, J. P., &Daniels, K. A. (2002). Effects of prior experience on judgments of normative word frequency: Automatic bias and correction.Journal of Memory & Language,46, 845–874.
Warm, J. S., &McCray, R. E. (1969). Influence of word frequency and length on the apparent duration of tachistoscopic presentations.Journal of Experimental Psychology,79, 56–58.
Westerman, D. L., Lloyd, M. E., &Miller, J. K. (2002). The attribution of perceptual fluency in recognition memory: The role of expectation.Journal of Memory & Language,47, 607–617.
Whittlesea, B. W. A. (1993). Illusions of familiarity.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition,19, 1235–1253.
Whittlesea, B. W. A., Jacoby, L. L., &Girard, K. (1990). Illusions of immediate memory: Evidence of an attributional basis for feelings of familiarity and perceptual quality.Journal of Memory & Language,29, 716–732.
Whittlesea, B. W. A., &Williams, L. D. (1998). Why do strangers feel familiar, but friends don’t? The unexpected basis of feelings of familiarity.Acta Psychologica,98, 141–166.
Whittlesea, B. W. A., &Williams, L. D. (2000). The source of familiarity: The discrepancy-attribution hypothesis.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition,26, 547–565.
Whittlesea, B. W. A., &Williams, L. D. (2001). The discrepancyattribution hypothesis: I. The heuristic basis of feelings of familiarity.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition,27, 3–13.
Winkielman, P., Schwarz, N., Fazendeiro, T. A., &Reber, R. (2003). The hedonic marking of processing fluency: Implications for evaluative judgment. In J. Musch & K. C. Klauer (Eds.),The psychology of evaluation: Affective processes in cognition and emotion (pp. 189–217). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Witherspoon, D., &Allan, L. G. (1985). The effect of a prior presentation on temporal judgments in a perceptual identification task.Memory & Cognition,13, 101–111.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
This research was supported by the L. Meltzer Foundation at the University of Bergen and Swiss National Science Foundation Grant 61-57881.99 to R.R.
Note—This article was accepted by the previous editorial team, headed by Neil Macmillan.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Reber, R., Zimmermann, T.D. & Wurtz, P. Judgments of duration, figure-ground contrast, and size for words and nonwords. Perception & Psychophysics 66, 1105–1114 (2004). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03196839
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03196839