Selective Attention

• What is a core element of cognitive psychology related to language?

  Mental processes for language comprehension and production
• Why is understanding mental processes for language comprehension important?

  It is fundamental for understanding how children learn to read and reading disorders
• What are the learning outcomes of the lecture on visual word recognition?

  To explain methods for investigating word recognition and basic effects in research
• What interplay is important in models of word recognition?

  The interplay between bottom-up (data-driven) and top-down (contextual) knowledge
• What does the Lexical Decision Task measure?

  It measures if a letter string forms a real word or not
• What is the word frequency effect in word recognition?

  Readers are quicker to recognize common words than rare words
• How does the Semantic Priming Effect work?

  Participants make lexical decisions to target words preceded by a prime
• What do eye movements in reading indicate?

  They measure eye fixation durations on a word, sensitive to word recognition processes
• What did Sereno et al. (1998) find regarding ERPs and the word frequency effect?

  The amplitude of the N1 component was lower for high-frequency than low-frequency words
• What are the properties of automatic processes in word recognition?

  They do not require attention, are not under conscious control, and do not require processing capacity
• What does subliminal perception in semantic priming demonstrate?

  Participants are faster to identify a word when preceded by a related prime
• What does the Stroop Effect illustrate about automatic processes?

  It shows that recognizing a word is not under conscious control
• What did Rayner et al. (1981) find about eye fixations during reading?

  Participants can read normally under difficult conditions, suggesting little processing capacity is needed
• What conclusions can be drawn about visual word recognition?

  It appears to be an automatic process that does not require conscious attention
• What do bottom-up and top-down processes refer to in word recognition?

  Bottom-up refers to sensory information, while top-down refers to knowledge and expectations
• What does the word superiority effect suggest about letter identification?

  Lexical access can guide letter identification, showing context effects
• What does the Interactive Activation Model allow for in reading?

  It allows for both bottom-up and top-down processes
• What are the advantages of different methods of studying word recognition?

  Each method has different advantages, such as lexical decision, eye-tracking, and ERPs