Case-Mixing Effects on Anagram Solution.

The effects of mixed-case letters on anagram solution were investigated in 2 studies with college-aged participants. In Experiment 1, the participants attempted to solve anagrams printed in either mixed- or same-case letters. The results showed that mixed-case letters disrupted the solution process....

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of General Psychology Vol. 129; no. 2; pp. 117 - 127
Main Authors: Witte, Kenneth L., Freund, Joel S., Csiki, Ildiko
Format: Article
Published: Taylor & Francis Ltd April 2002
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Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
Description
Summary:The effects of mixed-case letters on anagram solution were investigated in 2 studies with college-aged participants. In Experiment 1, the participants attempted to solve anagrams printed in either mixed- or same-case letters. The results showed that mixed-case letters disrupted the solution process. To determine if this effect was a result of the inappropriate grouping of letters of the same case, the authors conducted Experiment 2 as a partial replication of Experiment 1. In Experiment 2, in some cases, uppercase letters in the mixed-case condition formed a word that was of a higher frequency than was the solution word. Once again mixed-case letters disrupted the solution process. However, the authors found no evidence for the hypothesis on the inappropriate grouping of letters as the disruption was independent of having an embedded word in the anagram. Reprinted by permission of the publisher.