Rejuvenating the English Lexicon Project

20年前，美国国家科学基金会支持了英语词汇项目（ELP）的发展，这是一个重要的数据库，供研究人员探索人们如何阅读。ELP提供了在六所大学收集的1200多名参与者中超过40，000个单词的单词识别措施。重要的是，这些数据通过用户友好的网站elexicon.wust.edu提供给更广泛的研究界。 利用这个数据库，研究人员可以选择具有特定特征的刺激物进行实验，探索阅读的本质及其神经基础。此外，该数据库在确定影响阅读过程的新变量方面发挥了重要作用。 这个数据库对研究的影响体现在超过1600条（google scholar）对描述该项目的原始（2007）出版物的引用。 世界各地的研究人员每周访问该网站约250次。 这是一个很好的例子，说明大数据如何对一个具有明确应用意义的理论重要领域产生重大影响，即，人们如何阅读文字。 此ELP运行在一台过时的计算机上，该计算机已超过其预期寿命，并且不再支持原始软件界面。 该建议是使用华盛顿大学心理和脑科学系内的虚拟计算机系统支持的当前软件重写用户界面的程序。 这将确保数据库仍然可供心理语言学界使用。

Two decades ago, the National Science Foundation supported the development of the English Lexicon Project (ELP), a critical database for researchers exploring how people read. The ELP affords measures of word recognition for over 40,000 words across over 1200 participants that were collected at six universities. Importantly, these data are made available to the wider research community via a user-friendly website at elexicon.wust.edu. Using the database, researchers can select stimuli with specific characteristics for experiments exploring the nature of reading and its neural underpinnings. Moreover, the database has been important in identifying new variables that influence the reading process. The impact of this database on research is exemplified by the over 1600 (google scholar) citations to the original (2007) publication describing the project. The website is accessed approximately 250 times each week from researchers worldwide. This is a prime example of how big data can have a substantial impact on a theoretically important area that has clear applied implications, i.e., how individuals read words. This ELP is being run on an outdated computer that has outlived its life expectancy and the original software interface is no longer supported. This proposal is to rewrite the programs for the user interface using current software supported by a virtual computer system within the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Washington University. This will ensure the database remains available to the psycholinguistic community.