We used transposed-letter (TL) priming to test the lexical tuning hypothesis, which states that words from high-density orthographic neighborhoods have more precise orthographic codes than words from low-density neighborhoods. Replicating standard TL priming effects, target words elicited faster lexical decision responses and smaller amplitude N250s and N400s when preceded by TL primes (e.g., leomn-LEMON) compared with substitution primes (e.g., leuzn-LEMON) overall. We expected that if high-density words have more precise orthographic representations (i.e., with each letter assigned to a specific position), then they should be relatively less activated by TL primes and should give rise to smaller TL priming effects. In line with our prediction, N250 (but not N400 or behavioral) TL priming was significantly smaller for high-density words compared with low-density words over posterior sites. Such an interaction was not observed for pseudoword targets. Consistent with the lexical tuning hypothesis then, this pattern suggests that the nature of the orthographic code used to access lexical representations differs depending on the number of neighboring words in the lexicon. We conclude by discussing how lexical tuning could be implemented in current models of orthographic processing.

我们使用转置字母 (TL) 启动来测试词汇调整假设，该假设指出来自高密度正字邻域的单词比来自低密度邻域的单词具有更精确的正字代码。复制标准TL启动效应，由素数TL之前当目标词引起更快的词汇决策响应和较小振幅N250s和N400s（例如，leomn-LEMON）与取代的素数（例如，与leuzn-LEMON） 总体。我们预计，如果高密度单词具有更精确的正字法表示（即，将每个字母分配到特定位置），那么它们应该相对较少被 TL 素数激活，并且应该会产生更小的 TL 启动效应。与我们的预测一致，与后位点上的低密度词相比，N250（但不是 N400 或行为）TL 启动对于高密度词要小得多。对于伪词目标没有观察到这种相互作用。与词汇调整假设一致，这种模式表明用于访问词汇表示的正字法代码的性质因词典中相邻单词的数量而异。我们最后讨论了如何在当前的正字法处理模型中实现词汇调整。