Effect of Letter Order on
Word Recognition
Matt Moore and Sarah Pollom
Hanover College
1
Original Cambridge Study
Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde
Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr
the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt
tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at
the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl
mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit
porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid
deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the
wrod as a wlohe.
2
What is known…
• If first and last letter are in correct order it does
not affect our comprehension of a word
– We do not read every letter of a word
– Exterior letters serving as visual cues
• Masking and Swapping
– (McCusker, Gough, & Bias, 1981; Rawlinson, 1976)
• Jumbled words
– i.e. hatospil, inmcoes, pintaet
– (Oliver, Healy, & Mross, 2005)
3
Research Objective
• First, we are testing whether or not
both the first and lest letter play a role
in word recognition.
• Second, we are testing whether the
first or last letter plays a more
significant role in word recognition.
4
Design
• 2 x 4 repeated-measures design
– Two independent variables
• Congruency
• Letter Order
5
Hypotheses
• Congruency
– Faster reaction times for congruent versus
incongruent conditions
• Letter order
– Normal and first and last letter in correct order
will produce the fastest reaction times
– First letter only and last letter only in correct
order will produce the slower reaction times
6
Method
• Participants
– 23 undergraduate students
– 65% female, 35% male
– 100% Caucasian
– Range in age from 18-22 years old
– All claimed to be color normal
7
Materials
• Gateway computers w/ 14-inch LCD
monitors
– Operated by Windows XP
• Java 2 program
– Accessed through Internet Explorer
– Entitled the Stroop Experiment
– http://psych.hanover.edu/classes/Cognition/ps
y333.html
8
Stimuli
• 8 different stimuli
– Congruent or Incongruent
– Correct letter order, first and last in correct
order, first letter only in correct order, last
letter only in correct order
– Black background
– Central word orientation
– 16-point font size
– Using yellow, orange, purple as the colors
9
Stimulus One
Congruent and correct letter order
10
Stimulus Two
Incongruent and correct letter order
11
Stimulus Three
Congruent and first and last letter in correct order
12
Stimulus Four
Incongruent and first and last letter in correct order
13
Stimulus Five
Congruent and first letter in correct order
14
Stimulus Six
Incongruent and first letter in correct order
15
Stimulus Seven
Congruent and last letter in correct order
16
Stimulus Eight
Incongruent and last letter in correct order
17
Procedure
• Participants completed all eight
conditions (in any order)
– Using the following settings:
• 25 Trials
• Responding to the color by pressing the
relevant buttons at the bottom of the screen
or by pressing the following keys: y for
yellow, p for purple, and o for orange.
(rework)
18
1500
Congruent
1000
Incongruent
500
an
eg
do
in
m
ni
ng
R
an
do
m
R
nd
B
E
M
id
dl
e
R
or
m
al
an
do
m
0
N
Mean Reaction Time (ms)
Results
Letter Order
Congruency  F (1,22) = 40.381, p = 0.0
No main effect of letter order
Interaction  F (3,66) = 3.722, p = 0.016
19
Discussion
• Our hypothesis supported the original
Cambridge study.
• Our hypothesis did not support the
(Oliver et al, 2005) study.
– First letter only or last letter only did not
have slower reaction times
• Letters not really jumbled/lack of sensitivity
• Can’t really make another word out of the
colors (Andrews, 1996)
20
Limitations
• Effect of Practice
– Completed 8 conditions (knew to only
look at color)
– Some participants had more familiarity
with Stroop Effect
• Faulty Reaction Times
21
References
• Andrew, S. (1996). Lexical retrieval and selection
processes: Effects of transposed-letter confusability.
Journal of Memory and Language, 35(6), 775-800.
• McCusker, L., Gough, P., & Bias, R. (1981). Word
recognition inside out and outside in. Journal of
Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and
Performance, 7(3), 538-551.
• Oliver, W., Healy, A., & Mross, E. (2005). Trade-offs in
detecting letters and comprehending text. Canadian
Journal of Experimental Psychology, 59(3), 159-167.
• Rawlinson, G.E. (1976). The significance of letter
position in word recognition. Unpublished PhD
Thesis, Psychology Department, University of
Nottingham, Nottingham UK.
22