The effect of prose context on visual search for letters

Subjects were given a simplified proofreading task in which they were instructed to circle every occurrence of a target letter in a prose passage or in a scrambled prose passage. It was found that the presence of a prose context enhanced the subjects ability to find a target letter when the target letter was in a content word, but impaired the subjects ability to find a target letter when it was in a function word. This interaction sheds light on a number of conflicting reports in the literature.