Recognition Memory for Visually Presented Homophones

Abstract

Underwood's (1965) finding that undergraduate Ss would mistakenly recognize words (e.g., HARD) which had not actually occurred earlier in a 200-word list but which were strong verbal associates of words (e.g., SOFT) which had, in fact, occurred earlier in the list, was replicated. Also, using the same recognition memory task, when members of a homophone pair had different meanings (e.g., STEAK vs STAKE), false recognition frequencies were low. When members of the homophone pair elicited the same meaning (e.g., 12 vs TWELVE), false recognition rates were high.