Reaction Times to Unknown Word Sets in Noise
Irwin W. Pollack · Language and Speech · 1963
Words from undefined word sets were presented to listeners over a white noise background. Response times to the words were examined as a function of the frequency of word occurrence in the language and as a function of the S/N ratio under test. The effect of S/N ratio and practice was large in comparison with the effect of word frequency. The results are discussed in terms of memory search through a set of “available” response alternatives rollowing word presentation.