Letter frequency effect

The letter frequency effect is an effect of letter frequency, according to which the frequency with which the letter is encountered influences the recognition time of a letter. Letters of high frequency show a significant advantage over letters of low frequency in letter naming,[1] same-different matching,[2] and visual search.[3] Letters of high frequency are recognized faster than letters of low frequency.[4] Appelman and Mayzner (1981) in their re-analysis of the studies concerning letter frequency effect have found that in 3 out of 6 studies using reaction times (RTs) as a dependent variable the letter frequency correlated significantly with RTs.[5]

Discussion

Majority of studies on letter frequency effect failed to find a significant letter frequency effect.[6] These studies, however, used the same-different matching task[6] in which the participants see two letters and are to respond if these letters are same or different.[6] Therefore, the absence of letter frequency effect in these studies may be due to the participants using the visual form of a letter instead of a letter itself to match the letters.[6]

References
  1. Cosky, M. J. (1976). The role of letter recognition in word recognition. Memory & Cognition, 4 , 207-214.
  2. Egeth, H., & Blecker, D. (1971). Differential effects of familiarity on judgments of sameness and difference. Perception & Psychophysics, 9 (4), 321-326.
  3. Latimer, C. R. (1972). Search time as a function of context letter frequency. Perception, 1 , 57-71.
  4. Miozo, Michele & Bastiani, Pierluigi de (2002). The Organization of Letter-Form Representations in Written Spelling: Evidence from Acquired Dysgraphia. Brain and Language 80, 366–392
  5. Appelman, I. B., & Mayzner , M. S. (1981). The letter-frequency effect and the generality of familiarity effects on perception.Perception & Psychophysics, 30, 436 – 446.
  6. Boris, New & Grainger, Johnatan (2011). On letter frequency effects. Acta Psychologica 138, 322 –328
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