Single-Letter Retrieval Cues for Anagram Solution

Abstract

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.

Activating concepts by activating experiential traces: investigations with a series of anagram solution tasks

“…In addition to providing insight regarding how word meaning and concepts are represented, the methodology used here could also help to get a better understanding of complex cognitive processes, as investigated in the problem solving literature. Influences of different aspects, like single letter cues (Witte & Freund, 2001) or phonemic cues (Fink & Weisberg, 1981), on anagram solving have already been shown. In this study we could also show that cues from other modalities linked to language, in this case a matching picture and the position of the anagram on the screen, can facilitate anagram solving.…”

Testing the mere effort account of the evaluation-performance relationship.

“…Word frequency has also been shown to affect the solubility of anagrams: anagrams made from high frequency words are solved more easily than are anagrams made from words of low frequency (e.g., Witte & Freund, 2001). However, this effect is produced through the action of the activation system.…”

The Effect of Local and Global Visual Cues on the Tilt Illusion

“…Scrambled words, despite certain letters remaining in their original position, would have a longer latency and result in less comprehension than unscrambled words. Witte and Freund (2001) also found that people typically assumed a consonant as the first letter of a word rather than a vowel. Thus, if given the middle or last letter cue, most people sorted through the consonants first and then moved on to the vowels after exhausting the other options.…”

“…Though letter placement was critical for word retrieval, this research still demonstrated that any cue was better than no cue at all. Individuals receiving no cue took longer to identify the word than individuals with any cue (Witte & Freund, 2001). This suggests that a scrambled word would be easier to decode if the first and last letters are in the original position (by acting as cues).…”

“…A comparable study examined the influence of one-letter cues in a word on solving anagrams (Witte & Freund, 2001). The purpose was to identify which letter cue was most useful in decoding anagrams.…”