CogLab Homework #10 - Lexical Decision: due Thursday (May 4)

1. Print out your individual reaction time means for the 5 conditions. (this will not be a graph). First describe the classic results for this experiment and say if your results conform to that pattern.

2. Describe how theories incorporating spreading activation (i.e. connectionist approach) can explain the classic pattern of results.

3. For your data, compute the average reaction time for identifying a nonword versus a word (regardless of whether it follows a word or a nonword). i.e. compute the overall average for identifying words (the second word shown in a pair -- the first word in the pair is the type of word it followed) by taking the average of the associated, unassociated, and nonword/word conditions. Then, separately compute the overall average for identifying nonwords (average the word/nonword and nonword/nonword conditions). Explain what this comparison is examining, and if the two averages you computed are different, provide a cognitive explanation for why one type would be easier (i.e. be faster) than the other.