Word frequency effect

<p>The word frequency effect is a <a href="/facts/Cognitive_psychology/GnzIgx2I">psychological</a> phenomenon where <a href="/facts/Word_recognition/QIfSYUAN">recognition</a> times are faster for words seen more frequently than for words seen less frequently.  <a href="/facts/Word_lists_by_frequency/CQeeR91L">Word frequency</a> depends on individual awareness of the tested language. The phenomenon can be extended to different characters of the word in non-alphabetic languages such as Chinese.
</p><p>A word is considered to be high frequency if the word is commonly used in daily <a href="/facts/Spoken_language/4BTtv1kU">speech</a>, such as the word "the". A word is considered to be low frequency if the word is not commonly used, such as the word "strait".  Some languages such as Chinese have multiple levels of daily speech that impact frequency of words.  There is frequency at the character level or at the word level.  There is also an effect of frequency at the <a href="/facts/Orthography/sJPhCpsU">orthographic</a> level.  Lower frequency words benefit more from a single repetition than higher frequency words.
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Word frequency effect open-in-new

Word frequency effect