Englishlike nonwords (e.g., "HICE") are easier to perceive than strings of letters not resembling English words (e.g., "RSFK") because:

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Bigram detectors in the brain are activated by pairs of letters that typically occur together in English words, making Englishlike nonwords easier to perceive than letter strings that don't resemble words.

Answer: D
 Because the brain's word detectors are attuned to respond to both actual words and near-words, Englishlike nonwords may also be more easily perceived than strings of random letters that do not resemble words.

Englishlike Nonwords (E