Anagram solving as a function of word imagery.

Dewing, Kathleen; Hetherington, Paul

doi:10.1037/h0036339

Cited by 18 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…While high imagery items were solved significantly faster in one experiment, this effect was not present at the 0.05 level in the two other experiments that they reported. Dewing and Hetherington (1974) found that high imagery solutions significantly facilitated anagram solving when solution word frequency, bigram frequency and associative meaningfulness (Noble, 1952) were controlled. This result was replicated with different materials and extra controls for bigram frequency and versatility (Solso et al 1973) factors by Stratton, Jacobus and Leonard (1975).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of Solution Word Attributes on Anagram Difficulty: A Regression Analysis

Gilhooly

Johnson

1978

Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology

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A sample of 45 student subjects provided solution scores for 80 five-letter anagrams. These scores were analysed as a function of solution word imagery, concreteness, familiarity, objective frequency, age-of-acquisition and associative meaningfulness using multiple regression techniques. T w o bigram measures together with number of vowels, nature of starting letter (vowel or consonant), anagram pronounceability and anagram-solution similarity scores were also entered into the regression equations. The bigram measures, the starting letter and anagram-solution similarity emerged as having significant associations with the solution scores. Previous reports of imagery effects in anagram are discussed in the light of the present results.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of Solution Word Attributes on Anagram Difficulty: A Regression Analysis

Gilhooly

Johnson

1978

Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology

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“…Intergroup reliabilities were satisfactory on all attributes. Significant correlations were found with previous word lists and the intercorrelations between dimensions matched previous findings.Recent studies have found that high-solution word imagery facilitates anagram solving (Dewing & Hetherington, 1974;Jablonski & Mueller, 1972; Stratton, Jacobus, & Leonard, 1975). However, word imagery is correlated with other potentially important attributes, notably concreteness, meaningfulness, familiarity, and age-of-acquisition (Paivio, Yuille, & Madigan, 1968; Stratton, Jacobus, & Brinley, 1975).…”

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confidence: 99%

Imagery, concreteness, age-of-acquisition, familiarity, and meaningfulness values for 205 five-letter words having single-solution anagrams

Gilhooly

Hay

1977

Behavior Research Methods & Instrumentation

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Solution-word imagery appears to affect difficulty of anagram solving. To assist research in this area, we present imagery, concreteness, age-of-acquisition, familiarity, and meaningfulness values for 205 five-letter words known to form single-solution anagrams. None of the words have repeated letters. Intergroup reliabilities were satisfactory on all attributes. Significant correlations were found with previous word lists and the intercorrelations between dimensions matched previous findings.Recent studies have found that high-solution word imagery facilitates anagram solving (Dewing & Hetherington, 1974;Jablonski & Mueller, 1972; Stratton, Jacobus, & Leonard, 1975). However, word imagery is correlated with other potentially important attributes, notably concreteness, meaningfulness, familiarity, and age-of-acquisition (Paivio, Yuille, & Madigan, 1968; Stratton, Jacobus, & Brinley, 1975). Analysis of the effects of such word attributes on anagram solving has been hampered by the lack of appropriate norms for a sufficiently extensive set of suitable words. The Paivio et a1. list of imagery, concreteness, meaningfulness, and frequency values is not ideal for anagram research because of the variation in word lengths and the presence of letter repetition within words on the list. Stratton, Jacobus, and Brinley (I975) have provided a partial remedy with their list of imagery, familiarity, meaningfulness, and age-ofacquisition values for 543 words of which 72 are fiveletter and 471 are six-letter. The list is clearly useful for six-letter words, but less so for five-letter words. The present study gathered imagery, concreteness, age-of-acquisition, familiarity, and meaningfulness values on 205 words taken from Olson and Schwartz's (I967) list of single-solution five-letter anagrams, and so provides a further stock of rated words to supplement those already available. The list may be useful in studies of word perception, learning, and memory, as well as in anagram research. METHOD SubjectsThe subjects were first-year student volunteers attending Aberdeen University. Imagery ratings were given by 50 subjects. Concreteness, age-of-acquisition, and familiarity ratings were given by three separate groups of 40 subjects each. The rating Requests for reprints should be sent to K. J. Gilhooly, Department of Psychology, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen AB9 2UB, Scotland. 12 groups were equally divided between males and females. A total of 257 subjects were involved in the meaningfulness measuring procedure and each word's score was based on data from between 20 to 30 subjects. WordsThe 205 five-letter words were selected from the Olson and Schwartz (1967) list of single-solution words. The words selected were not plurals, were not proper names, could be used as nouns, and were judged to be reasonably familiar. None of the words selected had repeated letters. ProcedureFor the imagery, age-of-acquisition, concreteness, and familiarity ratings, the following procedure was used.The words were printed in random order in columns ...

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“…Previous research has shown that providing solvers with cues, in addition to the anagram itself, can aid the process of anagram solution. Both categorical cues (Dewing & Hetherington, 1974;Murray & Mastronardi, 1975;Schubert, Spoehr, & Haertal, 1979) and associative cues (Safren, 1962) have been shown to facilitate anagram solution. However, previous studies, using single-letter cues with shorter anagrams (Dominowski, 1968;Murray & Mastronardi, 1975), did not find such cues to facilitate the solution process.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Using 5-letter solution words, Dewing and Hetherington (1974) found that performance was facilitated if the first and last letter of the solution words were simultaneously presented. Murray and Mastronardi (1975), using solution words ranging from 3 to 9 letters, presented just the first letter of the solution word.…”

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confidence: 99%

Single-Letter Retrieval Cues for Anagram Solution

Witte

Freund

2001

The Journal of General Psychology

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Anagram solution, as related to single-letter retrieval cues and first letter of the solution word (consonant or vowel), was examined. In Experiment 1, college-aged solvers were presented both types of 5-letter words and either the first letter of the solution word as a cue, or no cue. In Experiment 2, the effects of four types of retrieval cues (first, middle, or last letter or no cue) upon solving consonant-beginning words was examined. Finally, Experiment 3 examined the solution of both types of solution words as related to the preceding four types of retrieval cues. The results of all 3 experiments showed that a single letter can be an effective cue. For consonant-beginning words, the middle and last letters were as effective as the first letter. For vowel-beginning words, the first letter was more effective than either the middle or last letter. It was concluded that solvers select one letter of the anagram, typically a consonant, to serve as the first letter of the solution word, and then rearrange the remaining letters.

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Anagram solving as a function of word imagery.

Cited by 18 publications

References 15 publications

Effects of Solution Word Attributes on Anagram Difficulty: A Regression Analysis

Effects of Solution Word Attributes on Anagram Difficulty: A Regression Analysis

Imagery, concreteness, age-of-acquisition, familiarity, and meaningfulness values for 205 five-letter words having single-solution anagrams

Single-Letter Retrieval Cues for Anagram Solution

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