Abstract
In three experiments, subjects named target words preceded by congruous, incongruous, or neutral sentence contexts. There was no evidence that the recognition of the target word was affected by the semantic characteristics of a word presented immediately to the right of it. The nature of the preceding sentence context did affect target-naming speed. However, the magnitude of the context effect was considerably smaller in these experiments, in which nonterminal target words were used, than in previous experiments in which the target word was always the final word of the sentence, was highly predictable from the context, and was often semantically related to words in the sentence. The implications of these two findings for theories of reading and context effects are discussed.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
Reference Notes
Gough, P. B. Context, expectation, and word recognition. Paper presented at the meeting of the Midwestern Psychological Association, Detroit, May 1981.
Mitchell, D. C., & Green, D. W.Contextual effects in continuous reading. Paper presented at the British Psychological Society Conference on Reading, Exeter University, March 1980.
Alford, J. A.The interaction of sentential context and stimulus quality in word recognition. Paper presented at the meeting of the Midwestern Psychological Association, Chicago, May 1979.
Alford, J. A.Predicting predictability: Identification of sources of contextual constraint on words in text. Paper presented at the meeting of Midwestern Psychological Association, St. Louis, May 1980.
Gough, P. B., Alford, J. A., & Holley-Wilcox, P.Words and contexts. Paper presented at the meeting of the National Reading Conference, St. Petersburg Beach, Florida, November 1978.
Kiger, J. I., & Glass, A. L.Backwards priming in the lexical decision task. Paper presented at the meeting of the Eastern Psychological Association, New York, April 1981.
Stanovich, K. E., & West, R. F.On priming by a sentence context. Manuscript in preparation, 1982.
Stanovich, K. E., & West, R. F.The stability and generality of sentence context effects on word recognition speed. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Psychonomic Society, Philadelphia, November 1981.
Fischler, I.Studies of the effects of sentence contexts on lexical decision speed: Implications for models of word recognition and reading skill. Paper presented at the meeting of the Midwestern Psychological Association, Detroit, May 1981.
References
Aborn, M., Rubenstein, H., &Sterling, T. D. Sources of contextual constraint upon words in sentences.Journal of Experimental Psychology, 1959,57, 171–180.
Battig, W. R., & Montague, W. E. Category norms for verbal items in 56 categories: A replication and extension of Connecticut norms.Journal of Experimental Psychology Monographs, 1969,80(3, Pt. 2).
Becker, C. A., &Killion, T. H. Interaction of visual and cognitive effects in word recognition.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 1977,3, 389–401.
Bradshaw, J. L. PeripheraIly presented and unreported words may bias the perceived meaning of a centrally fixated homograph.Journal of Experimental Psychology, 1974,103, 1200–1202.
Cosky, M. J. The role of letter recognition in word recognition.Memory & Cognition, 1976,4, 207–214.
Ehrlich, S. F., &Rayner, K. Contextual effects on word perception and eye movements during reading.Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 1981,20, 641–655.
Fischler, I. Associative facilitation without expectancy in a lexical decision task.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 1977,3, 18–26.
Fischler, I., &Bloom, P. A. Automatic and attentional processes in the effects of sentence contexts on word recognition.Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 1979,18, 1–20.
Fischler, I., &Bloom, P. A. Rapid processing of the meaning of sentences.Memory & Cognition, 1980,8, 216–225.
Fischler, I., &Goodman, G. O. Latency of associative activation in memory.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 1978,4, 455–470.
Fowler, C. A., Wolford, G., Slade, R., &Tassinary, L. Lexical access with and without awareness.Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 1981,110, 341–362.
Frederiksen, J. R., &Kroll, J. F. Spelling and sound: Approaches to the internal lexicon.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 1976,2, 361–379.
Goodman, K. S. Reading: A psycholinguistic guessing game. In H. Singer & R. Ruddell (Eds.),Theoretical models and processes of reading. Newark, Del: International Reading Association, 1976.
Hochberg, J. Components of literacy: Speculations and exploratory research. In H. Levin & J. Williams (Eds.),Basic studies in reading. New York: Basic Books, 1970.
Inhoff, A. W. Parafoveal word perception: A further case against semantic preprocessing.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 1982,8, 137145.
Inhoff, A. W., &Rayner, K. Parafoveal word perception: A case against semantic processing.Perception & Psychophysics, 1980,27, 457–464.
Kleiman, G. M. Sentence frame contexts and lexical decisions: Sentence-acceptability and word-relatedness effects.Memory & Cognition, 1980,8, 336–344.
Levin, H., &Kaplan, E. L. Grammatical structure and reading. In H. Levin & J. Williams (Eds.),Basic studies in reading. New York: Basic Books, 1970.
Marcel, T. Unconscious reading: Experiments on people who do not know they are reading.Visible Language, 1978,12, 392–404.
Mccauley, D., Parmelee, C. M., Sperber, R. D., &Carr, T. H. Early extraction of meaning from pictures and its relation to conscious identification.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 1980,6, 265276.
Mcclelland, J. L., &O’Regan, J. K. Expectations increase the benefit derived from parafoveal visual information in reading words aloud.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 1981,7, 634–644.
Mcconkie, G. W. On the role and control of eye movements in reading. In P. A. Kolers, M. E. Wrolstad, & H. Bouma (Eds.),Processing of visual language (Vol. I). New York: Plenum, 1979.
Mcconkie, G. W., &Zola, D. Language constraints and the functional stimulus in reading. In A. M. Lesgold & C. A. Perfetti (Eds.),Interactive processes in reading. Hillsdale, N.J: Erlbaum, 1981.
Merikle, P. M. Unconscious perception revisited.Perception & Psychophysics, 1982,31, 298–301.
Meyer, D. E., &Schvaneveldt, R. W. Facilitation in recognizing pairs of words: Evidence of a dependence between retrieval operations.Journal of Experimental Psychology, 1971,90, 227–234.
Meyer, D. E., Schvaneveldt, R. W., &Ruddy, M. G. Loci of contextual effects on word recognition. In P. M. A. Rabbitt & S. Dornic (Eds.),Attention and performance V. New York: Academic Press, 1975.
Miller, G. R., &Coleman, E. B. A set of thirty-six prose passages calibrated for complexity.Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 1967,6, 851–854.
Mitchell, D. C.The process of reading: A cognitive analysis of fluent reading and learning to read. New York: Wiley, 1982.
Mitchell, D. C., &Green, D. W. The effects of context and content on immediate processing in reading.Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 1978,30, 609–636.
Neely, J. H. Semantic priming and retrieval from lexical memory: Evidence for facilitatory and inhibitory processes.Memory & Cognition, 1976,4, 648–654.
Neely, J. H. Semantic priming and retrieval from lexical memory: Roles of inhibitionless spreading activation and limitedcapacity attention.Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 1977,106, 226–254.
Paap, K. R., &Newsome, S. L. Parafoveal information is not sufficient to produce semantic or visual priming.Perception & Psychophysics, 1981,29, 457–466.
Perfetti, C. A., Goldman, S. R., &Hogaboam, T. W. Reading skill and the identification of words in discourse context.Memory& Cognition, 1979,7, 273–282.
Philpott, A., &Wilding, J. Semantic interference from subliminal stimuli in a dichotic viewing situation.British Journal of Psychology, 1979,70, 559–563.
Posner, M. I., &Snyder, C. R. R. Attention and cognitive control. In R. Solso (Ed.),Information processing and cognition: The Loyola symposium. Hillsdale, N.J: Erlbaum, 1975. (a)
Posner, M. I., &Snyder, C. R. R. Facilitation and inhibition in the processing of signals. In P. M. A. Rabbitt & S. Dornic (Eds.),Attention and performance V. New York: Academic Press, 1975. (b)
Rayner, K., Inhoff, A. W., Morrison, R. E., Swwiaczek, M. L., &Butera, J. H. Masking of foveal and parafoveal vision during eye fixations in reading.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 1981,7, 167–179.
Rayner, K., Mcconkie, G. W., &Zola, D. Integrating information across eye movements.Cognitive Psychology, 1980,12, 206–226.
Rayner, K., &Swwiaczek, M. L. Expectations and parafoveal information in reading: Comments on McClelland and O’Regan.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 1981,7, 645–651.
Richardson, J. T. E. The effects of stimulus attributes upon latency of word recognition.British Journal of Psychology, 1976,67, 315–325.
Rubenstein, H., &Aborn, M. Learning, prediction, and readability.Journal of Applied Psychology, 1958,42, 28–32.
Schiepers, C. Response latency and accuracy in visual word recognition.Perception & Psychophysics, 1980,27, 71–81.
Schuberth, R. E., &Eimas, P. D. Effects of context on the classification of words and nonwords.Journal ofExperimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 1977,3, 27–36.
Schuberth, R. E., SPoehr, K. T., &Lane, D. M. Effects of stimulus and contextual information on the lexical decision process.Memory & Cognition, 1981,9, 68–77.
Schvaneveldt, R. W., &Mcdonald, J. E. Semantic context and the encoding of words: Evidence for two modes of stimulus analysis.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 1981,7, 673–687.
Shaffer, W.O., &Laberge, D. Automatic semantic processing of unattended words.Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 1979,18, 413–426.
Smith, F.Understanding reading. New York: Holt, Rinehart &Winston, 1978.
Stanovich, K. E. Toward an interactive-compensatory model of individual differences in the development of reading fluency.Reading Research Quarterly, 1980,16, 32–71.
Stanovich, K. E. Attentional and automatic context effects in reading. In A. M. Lesgold & C. A. Perfetti (Eds.),Inter-activeprocesses in reading. Hillsdale, N.J: Erlbaum, 1981.
Stanovich, K. E., &West, R. F. Mechanisms of sentence context effects in reading: Automatic activation and conscious attention.Memory & Cognition, 1979,7, 77–85.
Stanovich, K. E., &West, R. F. The effect of sentence context on ongoing word recognition: Tests of a two-process theory.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 1981,7, 658–672.
Stanovich, K. E., West, R. F., &Feeman, D. J. A longitudinal study of sentence context effects in second-grade children: Tests of an interactive-compensatory model.Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 1981,32, 185–199.
Underwood, G. Semantic interference from unattended printed words.British Journal of Psychology, 1976,67, 327–338.
Underwood, G. Attention, awareness, and hemispheric differences in word recognition.Neuro psychologia, 1977,15, 61–67.
Underwood, G. Attention and the non-selective lexical access of ambiguous words.Canadian Journal of Psychology, 1980,34, 72–76.
Underwood, G. Lexical recognition of embedded unattended words: Some implications for reading processes.Acta Psycho-logica, 1981,47, 267–283.
Wesr, R. F., &Stanovich, K. E. Automatic contextual facilitation in readers of three ages.Child Development, 1978,49, 717–727.
West, R. F., &Stanovich, K. E. Source of inhibition in experiments on the effect of sentence context on word recognition.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 1982,8, 385–399.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
This research was supported by National Science Foundation Grant BNS80-20594 to Keith E. Stanovich and by the James Madison University Program of Grants for Faculty Research.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Stanovich, K.E., West, R.F. The generalizability of context effects on word recognition: A reconsideration of the roles of parafoveal priming and sentence context. Memory & Cognition 11, 49–58 (1983). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03197661
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03197661