A Metric for Orthographic Similarity: Theory and Implications

Abstract

Letter position plays an important role in lexical access. But are some positions more important than the others? Findings from numerous studies support the notion that in lexical access, initial letters produce strongest activation, which weakens towards the end of the word. In order to create a metric for computing the activation produced by each letter position in a correctly spelled word versus a word in which some or all letters are transposed, the formula for calculating a word's orthographic match coefficient (OMC) was developed and tested. Utilizing the masked priming paradigm and a lexical decision task, Experiments 1-5 test the accuracy and reliability of the OMC predictions, and look at neighborhood density in conjunction with different types of letter movement. Results from these experiments provide empirical support for the OMC as a reliable predictor of priming that involves transposed letters, and offer insight into possible mechanisms of word recognition.