A developmental study of the role of category information in word identification

The studies reported here were generated out of the hypothesis that category information about a word is initially activated prior to identification of the word. Three experiments investigated the role of category information in word identification by 3rd graders, 6th graders, and adults using a serial two-choice classification paradigm. Semantic properties of lists of words and target search instructions were varied to assess the facilitation of the categorical homogeneity of the nontarget words on target word identification. Experiments 1 and 2 required subjects to identify words as exemplars or not of a predefined category as soon as possible. The target words were in lists of categorically homogeneous and categorically heterogeneous nontarget words. Nontarget categories were different from target categories