EFFECTS OF NATURAL-LANGUAGE ON MULTIPLE LETTER SEARCHES

9 American and 9 Turkish subjects were surveyed on multiple letter-sea rch tasks in English, Turkish, and a text of nonwords. The Americans c ould only understand English, while the Turkish subjects were fluent i n both Turkish and English. The parameters measured were the letter-se arch speed and the number of identifications of two targets letters. F or searching speed, there was a significant difference for only the te xt language. The text of nonwords was searched at the lowest speed of all by both groups of subjects. In the case of the target-letter searc h, only fluency in a language was a significant factor. Also, when non words were used, performances declined on both tasks. We conclude that language familiarity is a more important factor than the language of the text when searching for multiple target letters.