Context Effects on Frequency Judgments of Words and Sentences'

A series of simple sentences (containing a single adjective, a noun, and a verb) were presented on a study trial. Presentation frequency of words comprising sentences was varied by presenting either repetitions of intact sentences or by recombining words from sentences for repetition in new sentences. Thus, modifiers (adjectives and verbs) accompanying repetitions of a given noun were either identical or different for each repetition. Following repetition of intact sentences, frequency judgments were higher when the whole sentences, rather than nouns from sentences, were employed as test items. Sentence frequency judgments were influenced by presentation frequency only when intact sentences were repeated. Increased spacing of intact sentence repetitions enhanced performance, regardless of the type of test item. The effect of increased spacing on noun frequency judgments was reduced by repeating nouns with different modifiers. Implications for a theoretical account of frequency discrimination are considered.