Participants in one experiment listened to pairs of words, with the instruction to press a key as quickly as possible whenever they detected that the words rhymed. The words rhyme in both these pairs: VOTE—NOTE VOTE—GOAT The difference is obvious to you because you see the two pairs. VOTE and GOAT rhyme, but they are spelled differently. The participants only heard the words, but they were also influenced by the spelling. They were distinctly slower to recognize the words as rhyming if their spelling was discrepant. Although the instructions required only a comparison of sounds, the
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