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Chunk Decomposition in Anagram Solving Tasks
If a well-known word is a part of anagram stimulus, it may complicate the process of anagram solution. It may happens because a word inside an anagram may serve as semantic prime, or because such a word is a chunk tough to decompose. We manipulated structural features of word and nonword chunks in anagram stimuli to find out what features of a chunk, semantic or structural, are more influential for anagram solving. The results showed that not structural but semantic features of a chunk are more important for five-letter anagrams, while none of these features were crucial for solving six-letter anagrams. The authors suggest that different mechanisms underlie the solution process of shorter five-letter and longer six-letter anagrams. Limitations of the study and its implications for future research are discussed.