Visual Search through Words and Nonwords in Horizontal and Vertical Orientations

Abstract

In a repeated measurement design, 18 college women searched for target letters in 18 lists of common words, rate words, and nonwords arranged either vertically or horizontally. The mean search time in seconds for three trials in each of six conditions was expected to be significantly slower for nonwords than for words and for vertical orientations than for horizontal orientations. More importantly, a significant interaction was predicted between direction of search and the type of list searched. Results confirmed earlier findings that the two main effects were significant; the significant interaction provided empirical evidence that consideration needs to be given to both intra-word redundancy and direction of visual search.