Welcome to the Lexical Decisions Experiment

Before we begin the experiment, we need to collect some information about you.

1. Indicate your gender:
2. Indicate your hand preference:

Hope College Psych Labs: Lexical Decisions Experiment

General Instructions

Introducing the Lexical Decisions Experiment

This experiment is designed to measure how long it takes people to judge whether a set of letters forms an English word.

On each trial you will see a set of four letters. On half the trials, the letters will form a common real English word, as shown in the box at left.

On the other half of the trials, the letters will be "nonsense"—that is, they won't form a real word, as shown in the box at right.

CONTINUE INSTRUCTIONS

Hope College Psych Labs: Lexical Decisions Experiment

General Instructions Page 2

Procedure for Each Trial

At the beginning of each trial, you should stare at the trial number in the center of the screen, between the blue boxes.
When you are ready to view the letters, press the SPACE BAR with your thumb.
After a random delay, four letters will appear briefly in ONE of the blue boxes (not in both boxes).

On half the trials, the letters will appear in the left box.
On the other half of the trials, the letters will appear in the right box.
DO NOT MOVE YOUR EYES to look at the letters! Keep staring at the trial number between the boxes.

CONTINUE INSTRUCTIONS

Hope College Psych Labs: Lexical Decisions Experiment

General Instructions Page 3

Your Response to Each Trial

As soon as the letters appear, you must decide whether that set of numbers is a common word or a made-up nonsense nonword.
If the letters form an actual word, press the M key with the middle finger of your right hand.
If the letters form a nonword, press the N key with the first finger of your right hand.

Please try to press the correct key as quickly as you can without making mistakes.
Remember, DO NOT MOVE YOUR EYES to look at the letters! Keep staring at the trial number.

To familiarize you with the task, we will begin with some Practice Trials.

SHOW PRACTICE INSTRUCTIONS

Hope College Psych Labs: Lexical Decisions Experiment

PRACTICE TRIALS

Instructions for Practice Trials

Now you will go through 12 Practice Trials. Please place your right index finger (first finger) on the N key and your right middle finger on the M key.
You will begin each trial by pressing the SPACE BAR with your thumb.

On each trial you must decide whether the set of letters is a word or a nonsense nonword.

If the letters form a word, press the M key. If the letters form a nonword, press the N key.
Please try to press the correct key as quickly as you can without making mistakes.

When you are ready to begin the 12 Practice Trials, press the "Begin Practice Trials" button.

BEGIN PRACTICE TRIALS

Hope College Psych Labs: Lexical Decisions Experiment

TEST TRIALS

Instructions for Test Trials

Now you will go through 60 Test Trials. Please place your right index finger (first finger) on the N key and your right middle finger on the M key. You will begin each trial by pressing the SPACE BAR with your thumb.

On each trial you must decide whether the set of letters is a word or a nonsense non-word.

If the letters form a word, press the M key. If the letters form a nonword, press the N key. Please try to press the correct key as quickly as you can without making mistakes.

When you are ready to begin the 60 Test Trials, press the "Begin Test Trials" button.

BEGIN TEST TRIALS

Hope College Psych Labs: Lexical Decisions Experiment

PRACTICE TRIAL P 1

xxxx 0 yyyy

Hope College Psych Labs: Lexical Decisions Experiment

Your Results

Mean RT in milliseconds
  Words Nonwords Overall
LVF
RVF
Overall
Percent Correct
  Words Nonwords Overall
LVF
RVF
Overall

Before you move on, copy your results to your data sheet.

Hope College Psych Labs: Lexical Decisions Experiment

Finished

This concludes the Lexical Decisions Experiment.

Thank you for your participation!

Saving data . . . Please wait a moment . . .
Session ending . . .
ERROR - Data not saved!

Hope College Psych Labs: Lexical Decisions Experiment