Abstract
Reynolds and Besner (2005) examined contextual control over the use of lexical and nonlexical routes by requiring participants to alternate between reading pairs of low-frequency exception words and pairs of nonwords. Their main finding was that latencies for both words (e.g., wad) and nonwords (e.g., flad) were slower when the immediately preceding trial involved the opposite item type rather than the same item type (a switch cost). The authors interpreted this result as evidence that under certain circumstances, readers have the ability to shift emphasis between their lexical and nonlexical routes. The present research shows that these results can be replicated using Reynolds and Besner’s items; however, the switch cost for words, but not for nonwords, disappears when more easily named nonwords are used. This result suggests that Reynolds and Besner’s results were likely due to something other than shifting route emphasis.
Article PDF
References
Baluch, B., &Besner, D. (1991). Visual word recognition: Evidence for strategic control of lexical and nonlexical routines in oral reading.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition,17, 644–652.
Chateau, D., &Lupker, S. J. (2003). Strategic effects in word naming: Examining the route-emphasis versus time-criterion accounts.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance,29, 139–151.
Colombo, L., &Tabossi, P. (1992). Strategies and stress assignment: Evidence from a shallow orthography. In R. Frost & L. Katz (Eds.),Orthography, phonology, morphology and meaning (pp. 319–342). Amsterdam: North-Holland.
Coltheart, M., Rastle, K., Perry, C., Langdon, R., &Ziegler, J. (2001). DRC: A dual route cascaded model of visual word recognition and reading aloud.Psychological Review,108, 204–256.
Forster, K. I., &Forster, J. C. (2003). DMDX: A Windows display program with millisecond accuracy.Behavior Research Methods, Instruments, & Computers,35, 116–124.
Kinoshita, S., &Lupker, S. J. (2002). Effects of filler type in naming: Change in time criterion or attentional control of pathways?Memory & Cognition,30, 1277–1287.
Kinoshita, S., &Lupker, S. J. (2003). Priming and attentional control of lexical and sublexical pathways in naming: A reevaluation.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition,29, 405–415.
Kinoshita, S., &Mozer, M. C. (2006). How lexical decision is affected by recent experience: Symmetric versus asymmetric frequencyblocking effects.Memory & Cognition,34, 726–742.
Kučera, H., &Francis, W. N. (1967).Computational analysis of presentday American English. Providence, RI: Brown University Press.
Lupker, S. J., Brown, P., &Colombo, L. (1997). Strategic control in a naming task: Changing routes or changing deadlines?Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition,23, 570–590.
Monsell, S., Patterson, K. E., Graham, A., Hughes, C. H., &Milroy, R. (1992). Lexical and sublexical translations of spelling to sound: Strategic anticipation of lexical status.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition,18, 452–467.
Mozer, M. C., Kinoshita, S., &Davis, C. (2004). Control of response initiation: Mechanisms of adaptation to recent experience. In K. Forbus, D. Gentner, & T. Regier (Eds.),Proceedings of the Twenty-Sixth Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 981–986). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Rastle, K., Harrington, J., &Coltheart, M. (2002). 358,534 nonwords: The ARC Nonword Database.Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology,55A, 1339–1362.
Reynolds, M., &Besner, D. (2005). Contextual control over lexical and sublexical routines when reading English aloud.Psychonomic Bulletin & Review,12, 113–118.
Rogers, R. D., &Monsell, S. (1995). Cost of a predictable switch between simple cognitive tasks.Journal of Experimental Psychology: General,124, 207–231.
Taylor, T. E., &Lupker, S. J. (2001). Sequential effects in naming: A time-criterion account.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition,27, 117–138.
Zevin, J. D., &Balota, D. A. (2000). Priming and attentional control of lexical and sublexical pathways during naming.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition,26, 121–135.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding authors
Additional information
Note—Accepted by David A. Balota’s editorial team.
Electronic supplementary material
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Kinoshita, S., Lupker, S.J. Switch costs when reading aloud words and nonwords: Evidence for shifting route emphasis?. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review 14, 449–454 (2007). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03194087
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03194087