INFLUENCE OF WORD FREQUENCY AND LENGTH ON APPARENT DURATION OF TACHISTOSCOPIC PRESENTATIONS

The apparent duration of tachistoscopically presented words of different length and frequency of use was estimated by 48 undergraduate Ss. 2 levels of word length (short, long) were combined factorially with 2 levels of frequency (frequent, infrequent) to provide a total of 4 experimental conditions. All stimuli were presented for 1 sec. Judged exposure time was significantly greater for frequent as compared to infrequent words and for short as compared to long words. A significant interaction between word frequency and length indicated that the effects associated with word length occurred primarily among the infrequent words and that the effects associated with frequency were most pronounced among the long words. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved). © 1969 American Psychological Association.