PERHAPS THE LEXICON IS CODED AS A FUNCTION OF WORD-FREQUENCY

The present investigation examined the relationship between word frequency and lexical decision performance as stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) was varied between the presentation of a letter string and a subsequent pattern mask. For both Experiments 1 and 2, subjects responded significantly faster as word frequency increased (i.e., a word frequency advantage). Furthermore, this effect occurred for all three SOA conditions. Also for both experiments, recognition sensitivity decreased as word frequency decreased. These data indicate that word frequency advantages occur on a lexical decision task because the internal lexicon is coded as a function of word frequency and that word frequency advantages are not the result of verification effects or other later-occurring processes. © 1992.