The Lexical Decision Experiment

The Lexical Decision Experiment

The mental lexicons are organized into various sections—the first section stores semantically associated words (Trautwein, 2019). The second section stores phonologically associated words, whereas the third section stores orthographic information (Trautwein, 2019). Berger et al. (2022) report that the evaluation of induction tasks reveals that semantic induction produces a larger influence on lexical decision performance than perceptual induction.

Methods

The experiment was conducted online using CogLab. I pressed the space bar to begin the experiment. This was succeeded by a dark screen with a fixation square. Words and non-words appeared above the fixation square after about four seconds. I pressed the [/] key button to indicate that the item is a word and the [z] key to indicate that the item is a non-word. After pressing either of the keys, the item disappeared, and a new item was displayed. Feedback was displayed when I responded incorrectly, quickly, or slowly. I repeated this process until the window closed to indicate the end of the experiment.

Results

My response time to the second item was faster when the item was semantically related to the preceding item. Conversely, my response time was slower when the second item was semantically unrelated to the preceding item. According to the data table, my response time for associated words was about 1016.13 milliseconds, whereas the response time to unassociated words was 1404.2 milliseconds. My response time from the transition of a word to a non-word was about 1750.7 milliseconds, whereas the time from the transition of a non-word to a word was 1094 milliseconds. Finally, my response time between the transition of two non-words was 1545.14 milliseconds. The results are consistent with my expectations. I expected response times to be shorter for semantically associated words because they convey the same concept. Notably, various factors can impact the outcomes of a Lexical experiment. Garrido et al. (2019) report that the color of stimuli impacts this experiment, where green is likely to facilitate, whereas red is likely to inhibit performance.

References

Berger, A., Kunde, W., & Kiefer, M. (2022). Task cue influences on lexical decision performance and masked semantic priming effects: The role of cue-task compatibility. Attention, Perception, and Psychophysics, 84(8), 2684–2701. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13414-022-02568-2

Garrido, M. V., Prada, M., Simão, C., & Semin, G. R. (2019). The Impact of Stimuli Color in Lexical Decision and Semantic Word Categorization Tasks. Cognitive Science, 43(8). https://doi.org/10.1111/cogs.12781

Trautwein, J. (2019). The Mental Lexicon in Acquisition, Assessment, Size and Structure. https://publishup.uni-potsdam.de/opus4-ubp/frontdoor/deliver/index/docId/43431/file/trautwein_diss.pdf

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Instructions
The Lexical Decision Experiment
Using CogLab, complete the lexical decision experiment and create a report on the experiment.

The Lexical Decision Experiment

In your report, write a brief introduction explaining the organization of lexicons. In addition, include some representative research on lexical decisions. Next, in the Methods section, describe the process that you followed to complete the experiment, including a description of the materials used and the stimuli. Make sure to include enough information so that others can also perform the same experiment successfully.

Finally, describe the experimental results. In addition, determine whether your results showed semantic priming. Provide a rationale to support your answer. Summarize your report, including answers to the following questions:

Were the results in accordance with your expectations? Provide a rationale to support your answer.
Did anything about the experiment surprise you? If yes, what? Did you respond faster to words or nonwords?
In your opinion, what factors would influence the results of the lexical decision experiment?