LETTER AND ORDER INFORMATION IN LEXICAL ACCESS

The roles of letter and order information in lexical access were investigated using an interference paradigm in a lexical decision task. Interference was found for stimuli differing by the order of two adjacent letters either from a more frequent word (e.g., bale from able), or from a word, in the case of nonword stimuli (e.g., garden from garden). Interference was not found for stimuli differing by a single letter either from a more frequent word (e.g., collar from dollar) or from a word, in the case of nonword stimuli (e.g., lotor from motor), whether items differed by a first, middle, or last letter. With unlimited viewing time, it appears likely that all the letters of the word are part of the lexical access code, and that order information about adjacent letters is not. © 1979 Academic Press, Inc.