Word Characteristics and Judged Duration for Two Response Sequences

Abstract

In a previous study, Ss read each of a series of 24 tachistoscopically presented words, wrote each down, and then judged the duration; judgments apparently related to word length and word frequency (Warm & McCray, 1969). In the present study, which employed 2 groups of 24 Ss each, Group Word-Time first wrote the word and then judged its duration, while Group Time-Word judged the duration first and then wrote the word. The word length did not significantly affect the judgments. Words of higher frequency produced significantly greater judgments of duration than did lower; however, the frequency effect was significantly larger for Group Word-Time than for Group Time-Word, indicating that judged duration occurred at least partly as a response to the act of writing the word.