Orthographic Distinctiveness as a Variable in Word Recognition
Eugene B. Zechmeister · The American Journal of Psychology · 1972
Of low-frequency words scaled for orthographic distinctiveness, the structurally interesting or unusual (high distinctiveness) words were recognized better, and were chosen less often when used as distracters, than words rated not distinctive in orthography. Confidence judgments in correct recognition responses were significantly affected by the presence of a distinctive test distracter. Orthographic distinctiveness may be encoded as part of the memory for a word.