APA Dictionary of Psychology

the finding that, when presented briefly, individual letters are more easily identified in the context of a word than when presented alone. A similar but weaker effect is obtained when letters are presented as part of a pronounceable but meaningless vowel–consonant combination, such as deet or pling. Also called Reicher–Wheeler effect. See configural superiority effect; object-superiority effect. [first described in 1886 by James McKeen Cattell and subsequently investigated by U.S. psychologists Gerald M. Reicher (1939–  ) and Daniel D. Wheeler (1942–  )]