Abstract
Visual word recognition studies commonly measure the orthographic similarity of words using Coltheart’s orthographic neighborhood size metric (ON). Although ON reliably predicts behavioral variability in many lexical tasks, its utility is inherently limited by its relatively restrictive definition. In the present article, we introduce a new measure of orthographic similarity generated using a standard computer science metric of string similarity (Levenshtein distance). Unlike ON, the new measure—named orthographic Levenshtein distance 20 (OLD20)—incorporates comparisons between all pairs of words in the lexicon, including words of different lengths. We demonstrate that OLD20 provides significant advantages over ON in predicting both lexical decision and pronunciation performance in three large data sets. Moreover, OLD20 interacts more strongly with word frequency and shows stronger effects of neighborhood frequency than does ON. The discussion section focuses on the implications of these results for models of visual word recognition.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Explore related subjects
Discover the latest articles, news and stories from top researchers in related subjects.Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
Andrews, S. (1989). Frequency and neighborhood effects on lexical access: Activation or search. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition, 15, 802–814.
Andrews, S. (1992). Frequency and neighborhood effects on lexical access: Lexical similarity or orthographic redundancy. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition, 18, 234–254.
Andrews, S. (1997). The effect of orthographic similarity on lexical retrieval: Resolving neighborhood conflicts. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 4, 439–461.
Balota, D. A., Cortese, M. J., Sergent-Marshall, S. D., Spieler, D. H., & Yap, M. (2004). Visual word recognition of single-syllable words. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 133, 283–316.
Balota, D. A., Yap, M. J., Cortese, M. J., Hutchison, K. A., Kessler, B., Loftis, B., et al. (2007). The English Lexicon Project. Behavior Research Methods, 39, 445–459.
Coltheart, M., Davelaar, E., Jonasson, J. T., & Besner, D. (1977). Access to the internal lexicon. In S. Dornic (Ed.), Attention and performance VI (pp. 535–555). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Damerau, F. J. (1964). A technique for computer detection and correction of spelling errors. Communications of the ACM, 7, 171–176.
Davis, C. J. (2006). Orthographic input coding: A review of behavioural data and current models. In S. Andrews (Ed.), From inkmarks to ideas: Challenges and controversies about word recognition and reading (pp. 180–206). New York: Academic Press.
Davis, C. J., & Bowers, J. S. (2006). Contrasting five different theories of letter position coding: Evidence from orthographic similarity effects. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance, 32, 535–557.
Grainger, J., & Jacobs, A. M. (1996). Orthographic processing in visual word recognition: A multiple read-out model. Psychological Review, 103, 518–565.
Levenshtein, V. I. (1966). Binary codes capable of correcting deletions, insertions and reversals. Soviet Physics Doklady, 10, 707.
Lund, K., & Burgess, C. (1996). Producing high-dimensional semantic spaces from lexical co-occurrence. Behavior Research Methods, Instruments, & Computers, 28, 203–208.
McClelland, J. L., & Rumelhart, D. E. (1981). An interactive activation model of context effects in letter perception: Part 1. An account of basic findings. Psychological Review, 88, 375–407.
Meyer, G. J., Finn, S. E., Eyde, L. D., Kay, G. G., Moreland, K. L., Dies, R. R., et al. (2001). Psychological testing and psychological assessment: A review of evidence and issues. American Psychologist, 56, 128–165.
New, B., Ferrand, L., Pallier, C., & Brysbaert, M. (2006). Reexamining the word length effect in visual word recognition: New evidence from the English Lexicon Project. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 13, 45–52.
Yap, M. J. (2007). Visual word recognition: Explorations of megastudies, multisyllabic words, and individual differences. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Washington University.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
This work was supported by Grant BCS 0001801 from the National Science Foundation.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Yarkoni, T., Balota, D. & Yap, M. Moving beyond Coltheart’s N: A new measure of orthographic similarity. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review 15, 971–979 (2008). https://doi.org/10.3758/PBR.15.5.971
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/PBR.15.5.971