What is the context variability effect in the lexical decision task that was studied by Adelman, Brown, and Quesada (2006)?

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To begin, we restate the question and the available answer content to ensure clarity.
Question: What is the context variability effect in the lexical decision task that was studied by Adelman, Brown, and Quesada (2006)?
Provided answer option:
- Faster RTs for words that appeared in more documents

Now, we examine what the context variability effect typically refers to in the literature on lexical decision tasks.
- The context variability effect concerns how the number of different contexts in which a word appears can influence recognition performance. When a word is encountered across a broader set of contexts or documents, its representation in memory can become more robust or diffuse, which can affect how quickly a reader can decide whether a string of letters forms a real word.
- A core implication is that exposure to a word across many contexts may facilitate faster lexical decisions because the word’s orthographic–semantic mapping becomes more accessible or primed by diverse contextual cues.

Given the phrasing of the provided option, it states: "Faster RTs for words that appeared in more documents." This aligns with the idea that greater contextual exposure (more documents) leads to quicker lexical decisions, because the word benefits from variability in context that strengthens its representation.

Because there are no additional alternative options presented, we cannot compare or rule out other potential interpretations within this question. However, if we consider the standard interpretation of context variability effects in lexical decision tasks, the claim that words appearing in more documents yield faster reaction times is consistent with the concept that increased contextual exposure can facilitate recognition by enriching the mental representation of the word.

If any confusion arises, it may stem from conflating context variability with other related effects (for example, frequency effects or priming from specific contexts). Context variability emphasizes the diversity of contexts rather than sheer repetition in a single context, and its impact is on the ease of recognizing a word across varied occurrences rather than within a single, unvarying context.

In summary, the single option provided—"Faster RTs for words that appeared in more documents"—reflects the idea that greater contextual diversity (more documents) facilitates faster lexical decisions, which is consistent with the context variability effect studied in that line of research.

PSYC20007_2025_SM2 Week 11: Language 第 11 周：语言

What is the context variability effect in the lexical decision task that was studied by Adelman, Brown, and Quesada (2006)?

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