RETENTION OF VISUAL AND NAME CODES OF SINGLE LETTERS

If a stored letter can be matched more rapidly with a physically identical letter (e.g., AA) than it can with a letter having only the same name (e.g., Aa), then the stored representation must preserve something of the visual aspect of the letter. Immediately after the presentation of a letter, a physical match is about 90 msec. faster than a name match and this difference is lost after 2 sec. An interpolated information processing task abolished the difference between physical and name match RTs, but visual noise alone does not affect this difference. When the visual aspect of the letter is made a completely reliable cue, the efficiency of a physical match is maintained more adequately. If only the name of the 1st letter is presented, Ss show the ability to recode the information into a form which is as efficient as a physical match and more efficient than a name match. Consideration is given to the relevance of these findings to the general questions of decay, rehearsal, and generation of visual codes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved). © 1969 American Psychological Association.