AN ANALYSIS OF REICHER-TASK EFFECTS

Three experiments conducted to investigate aspects of the word-nonword version of the Reicher task were motivated, in part, by the recent se ries of experiments by Prinzmetal (1992). He found a word-superiority effect (WSE) with unlimited exposure durations, in contrast to the typ ical Reicher-task method involving limited exposures, raising the issu e of whether lexical access is involved in the WSE with brief exposure s. An interactive-activation account (Rumelhart & McClelland, 1982) mi ght suggest that the feedback from lexical access that would boost the perceptibility of the letters in a word would be more helpful with br ief, masked stimulus exposures, with lexical access playing a negligib le role with unlimited exposures. Positive evidence for lexical access with brief exposures was found with lexical priming (Experiment 1), h omophone spelling (Experiment 2), and pseudohomophone repetition (Expe riment 3). The converging evidence also revealed the applicability of the Reicher-task method to a variety of issues central to lexical acce ss and word perception.