Lexical Decision Task¶
HED Task ID: hedtsk_lexical_decision
Also known as: LDT, Lexical Decision
Speeded word/nonword judgment; RT and accuracy index lexical access and are sensitive to frequency, priming, and context.
Description¶
Participants view letter strings and must rapidly determine whether each string is a valid word or a nonword by pressing designated response buttons. Stimuli include high- and low-frequency words and pronounceable nonwords. RT and accuracy to words versus nonwords indexes lexical access efficiency. The task is often combined with priming manipulations to examine semantic, phonological, or morphological processing. It is one of the most fundamental paradigms in psycholinguistics.
Inclusion test¶
Procedure |
Letter strings are presented one at a time; participants classify each as a real word or a nonword as quickly and accurately as possible. |
Manipulation |
Word frequency; word length; orthographic neighborhood; nonword type (pseudoword vs. random); priming (semantic, associative, morphological). |
Measurement |
RT and accuracy; frequency effect; priming effect (primed − unprimed RT); d-prime. |
Variations¶
Variation |
Description |
Justification |
|---|---|---|
Standard Visual LDT |
Classify letter strings as word/nonword via button press. |
Canonical: word/nonword judgment to visually presented strings |
Auditory LDT |
Spoken stimuli; word/nonword judgment. |
Auditory presentation; different sensory modality |
Masked Priming LDT |
Briefly flashed masked prime before target; tests automatic lexical access. |
Brief masked prime before target; changes prime awareness |
Cross-Modal LDT |
Auditory prime → visual target or vice versa. |
Prime in one modality, target in another; cross-modal priming structure |
LDT with Different Nonword Types |
Pseudohomophones, transposed-letter nonwords, consonant-string nonwords. |
Pseudowords, random letter strings, pseudohomophones; nonword type changes task difficulty |
Bilingual LDT |
Mixed-language presentations; tests cross-linguistic activation. |
Targets in two languages; different language switching demand |
LDT Megastudies |
Thousands of items per participant (English Lexicon Project, British Lexicon Project). |
Large-scale normed stimulus sets enabling item-level analyses; different methodological scope |
Go/No-Go LDT |
Respond only to words (or only to nonwords); reduces response competition. |
Respond to one word class, withhold to another; different response structure |
Cognitive processes¶
This task engages the following cognitive processes:
Key references¶
{‘authors’: ‘Meyer, D. E., & Schvaneveldt, R. W.’, ‘year’: 1971, ‘title’: ‘Facilitation in recognizing pairs of words: Evidence of a dependence between retrieval operations.’, ‘venue’: ‘Journal of Experimental Psychology’, ‘venue_type’: ‘journal’, ‘journal’: ‘Journal of Experimental Psychology’, ‘volume’: ‘90’, ‘issue’: ‘2’, ‘pages’: ‘227-234’, ‘doi’: ‘10.1037/h0031564’, ‘openalex_id’: None, ‘pmid’: None, ‘citation_string’: ‘Meyer, D. E., & Schvaneveldt, R. W. (1971). Facilitation in recognizing pairs of words: Evidence of a dependence between retrieval operations. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 90(2), 227-234.’, ‘url’: ‘https://doi.org/10.1037/h0031564’, ‘source’: ‘crossref’, ‘confidence’: ‘high’, ‘verified_on’: ‘2026-04-20’}
{‘authors’: ‘Neely, J. H.’, ‘year’: 1977, ‘title’: ‘Semantic priming and retrieval from lexical memory: Roles of inhibitionless spreading activation and limited-capacity attention.’, ‘venue’: ‘Journal of Experimental Psychology: General’, ‘venue_type’: ‘journal’, ‘journal’: ‘Journal of Experimental Psychology: General’, ‘volume’: ‘106’, ‘issue’: ‘3’, ‘pages’: ‘226-254’, ‘doi’: ‘10.1037/0096-3445.106.3.226’, ‘openalex_id’: None, ‘pmid’: None, ‘citation_string’: ‘Neely, J. H. (1977). Semantic priming and retrieval from lexical memory: Roles of inhibitionless spreading activation and limited-capacity attention. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 106(3), 226-254.’, ‘url’: ‘https://doi.org/10.1037/0096-3445.106.3.226’, ‘source’: ‘crossref’, ‘confidence’: ‘high’, ‘verified_on’: ‘2026-04-20’}
{‘authors’: ‘Fiebach, C. J., Friederici, A. D., Müller, K., & Cramon, D. Y. v.’, ‘year’: 2002, ‘title’: ‘fMRI Evidence for Dual Routes to the Mental Lexicon in Visual Word Recognition’, ‘venue’: ‘Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience’, ‘venue_type’: ‘journal’, ‘journal’: ‘Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience’, ‘volume’: ‘14’, ‘issue’: ‘1’, ‘pages’: ‘11-23’, ‘doi’: ‘10.1162/089892902317205285’, ‘openalex_id’: None, ‘pmid’: None, ‘citation_string’: ‘Fiebach, C. J., Friederici, A. D., Muller, K., & von Cramon, D. Y. (2002). fMRI evidence for dual routes to the mental lexicon in visual word recognition. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 14(1), 11-23.’, ‘url’: ‘https://doi.org/10.1162/089892902317205285’, ‘source’: ‘crossref’, ‘confidence’: ‘high’, ‘verified_on’: ‘2026-04-20’}
Recent references¶
{‘authors’: ‘Keuleers, E., & Brysbaert, M.’, ‘year’: 2010, ‘title’: ‘Wuggy: A multilingual pseudoword generator’, ‘venue’: ‘Behavior Research Methods’, ‘venue_type’: ‘journal’, ‘journal’: ‘Behavior Research Methods’, ‘volume’: ‘42’, ‘issue’: ‘3’, ‘pages’: ‘627-633’, ‘doi’: ‘10.3758/brm.42.3.627’, ‘openalex_id’: None, ‘pmid’: None, ‘citation_string’: ‘Keuleers, E., & Brysbaert, M. (2010). Wuggy: A multilingual pseudoword generator. Behavior Research Methods, 42(3), 627–633. [Updated: Keuleers, E., Lacey, P., Rastle, K., & Brysbaert, M. (2012). The British Lexicon Project. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 65(8), 1441–1469.]’, ‘url’: ‘https://doi.org/10.3758/brm.42.3.627’, ‘source’: ‘crossref’, ‘confidence’: ‘high’, ‘verified_on’: ‘2026-04-20’}
{‘authors’: ‘Taylor, J. S. H., Rastle, K., & Davis, M. H.’, ‘year’: 2013, ‘title’: ‘Can cognitive models explain brain activation during word and pseudoword reading? A meta-analysis of 36 neuroimaging studies.’, ‘venue’: ‘Psychological Bulletin’, ‘venue_type’: ‘journal’, ‘journal’: ‘Psychological Bulletin’, ‘volume’: ‘139’, ‘issue’: ‘4’, ‘pages’: ‘766-791’, ‘doi’: ‘10.1037/a0030266’, ‘openalex_id’: None, ‘pmid’: None, ‘citation_string’: ‘Taylor, J. S. H., Rastle, K., & Davis, M. H. (2013). Can cognitive models explain brain activation during word and pseudoword reading? A meta-analysis of 36 neuroimaging studies. Psychological Bulletin, 139(4), 766–791.’, ‘url’: ‘https://doi.org/10.1037/a0030266’, ‘source’: ‘crossref’, ‘confidence’: ‘high’, ‘verified_on’: ‘2026-04-20’}
{‘authors’: ‘Balota, D. A., Yap, M. J., Hutchison, K. A., Cortese, M. J., Kessler, B., Loftis, B., Neely, J. H., Nelson, D. L., Simpson, G. B., & Treiman, R.’, ‘year’: 2007, ‘title’: ‘The English Lexicon Project’, ‘venue’: ‘Behavior Research Methods’, ‘venue_type’: ‘journal’, ‘journal’: ‘Behavior Research Methods’, ‘volume’: ‘39’, ‘issue’: ‘3’, ‘pages’: ‘445-459’, ‘doi’: ‘10.3758/bf03193014’, ‘openalex_id’: None, ‘pmid’: None, ‘citation_string’: ‘Balota, D. A., Yap, M. J., Hutchison, K. A., et al. (2007). The English Lexicon Project. Behavior Research Methods, 39(3), 445–459. [Megastudy approach]’, ‘url’: ‘https://doi.org/10.3758/bf03193014’, ‘source’: ‘crossref’, ‘confidence’: ‘high’, ‘verified_on’: ‘2026-04-20’}
{‘authors’: ‘Ratcliff, R., Gomez, P., & McKoon, G.’, ‘year’: 2004, ‘title’: ‘A Diffusion Model Account of the Lexical Decision Task.’, ‘venue’: ‘Psychological Review’, ‘venue_type’: ‘journal’, ‘journal’: ‘Psychological Review’, ‘volume’: ‘111’, ‘issue’: ‘1’, ‘pages’: ‘159-182’, ‘doi’: ‘10.1037/0033-295x.111.1.159’, ‘openalex_id’: None, ‘pmid’: None, ‘citation_string’: ‘Ratcliff, R., Gomez, P., & McKoon, G. (2004). A diffusion model account of the lexical decision task. Psychological Review, 111(1), 159–182.’, ‘url’: ‘https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295x.111.1.159’, ‘source’: ‘crossref’, ‘confidence’: ‘high’, ‘verified_on’: ‘2026-04-20’}
{‘authors’: ‘Ball, L. V., Brusini, P., & Bannard, C.’, ‘year’: 2025, ‘title’: ‘Supplemental Material for Unpacking the Sandwich: Which Mechanisms\n\t\t\t\t\t\tUnderlie the Increase in Sandwich Priming During Word\n\t\t\t\t\t\tRecognition?’, ‘venue’: ‘Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and\n\t\t\t\t\tCognition’, ‘venue_type’: ‘journal’, ‘journal’: ‘Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and\n\t\t\t\t\tCognition’, ‘volume’: ‘78’, ‘issue’: None, ‘pages’: None, ‘doi’: ‘10.1037/xlm0001426.supp’, ‘openalex_id’: None, ‘pmid’: None, ‘citation_string’: ‘Ball, L. V., Brusini, P., & Bannard, C. (2025). Revisiting novel word semantic priming: The role of strategic priming mechanisms. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 78. doi:10.1177/17470218241306747’, ‘url’: ‘https://doi.org/10.1037/xlm0001426.supp’, ‘source’: ‘crossref’, ‘confidence’: ‘high’, ‘verified_on’: ‘2026-04-20’}