Top-down influences on crowding: The word superiority effect and attentional cuing

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dc.contributor.advisorDannemiller, James L.en_US
dc.creatorBoyer, Jenniferen_US
dc.date.accessioned2018-12-03T18:32:03Zen_US
dc.date.available2018-12-03T18:32:03Zen_US
dc.date.issued2008en_US
dc.description.abstractThe goal of the current studies was to examine the influence of top-down mechanisms on the crowding effect. Crowding refers to the reduced ability to identify an object, typically a letter, when other objects in the periphery surround it spatially. We used crowding as a tool to examine the semantic contribution to word superiority effect and investigate the role that attentional cuing plays in both the crowding effect and the word superiority effect. In Experiments 2 and 3, we used a secondary task of either a lexical decision task or an additional letter identification task to assess priming from related crowded items, and found that semantics do not play a role in the word superiority effect. By controlling for letter sequence familiarity we found that words and pronounceable non-words produced comparable priming effects, suggesting that the word superiority effect results from pattern familiarity. In Experiments 4 and 5, we examined whether attentional cuing of crowded stimuli produces target enhancement, distracter suppression effects, or both. We found that neither endogenous nor exogenous cues produced distracter suppressions effects, but there was evidence for signal enhancement effects especially with word stimuli. The evidence suggests that exogenously and endogenously orienting attention interact with the word superiority effect such that they enhance the effect of context for words, but do so in different ways.en_US
dc.format.extent167 ppen_US
dc.identifier.callnoTHESIS PSYCH. 2009 BOYERen_US
dc.identifier.citationBoyer, Jennifer. "Top-down influences on crowding: The word superiority effect and attentional cuing." (2008) Diss., Rice University. <a href="https://hdl.handle.net/1911/103636">https://hdl.handle.net/1911/103636</a>.en_US
dc.identifier.digital304532556en_US
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/1911/103636en_US
dc.language.isoengen_US
dc.rightsCopyright is held by the author, unless otherwise indicated. Permission to reuse, publish, or reproduce the work beyond the bounds of fair use or other exemptions to copyright law must be obtained from the copyright holder.en_US
dc.subjectLinguisticsen_US
dc.subjectCognitive psychologyen_US
dc.subjectCognition & reasoningen_US
dc.subjectPsychologyen_US
dc.subjectLanguage, literature and linguisticsen_US
dc.subjectAttentionen_US
dc.subjectAttentional cuingen_US
dc.subjectCrowding effecten_US
dc.subjectCuing Word superiority effecten_US
dc.titleTop-down influences on crowding: The word superiority effect and attentional cuingen_US
dc.typeThesisen_US
dc.type.materialTexten_US
thesis.degree.departmentPsychologyen_US
thesis.degree.disciplineSocial Sciencesen_US
thesis.degree.grantorRice Universityen_US
thesis.degree.levelDoctoralen_US
thesis.degree.nameDoctor of Philosophyen_US
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