Rejuvenating the English Lexicon Project

20年前，美国国家科学基金会（National Science Foundation）支持了英语词典项目（ELP）的开发，这是一个研究人员探索人们阅读方式的关键数据库。ELP为来自6所大学的1200多名参与者提供了4万多个单词的单词识别方法。重要的是，这些数据通过一个用户友好的网站eleexicon.wust.edu提供给更广泛的研究界。利用该数据库，研究人员可以选择具有特定特征的刺激进行实验，探索阅读的本质及其神经基础。此外，该数据库在识别影响阅读过程的新变量方面也很重要。该数据库对研究的影响可以通过对描述该项目的原始出版物（2007年）的1600多次（b谷歌学者）引用来例证。全球研究人员每周访问该网站约250次。这是一个典型的例子，说明大数据如何对一个理论上重要的领域产生重大影响，并具有明确的应用意义，即个人如何阅读单词。该ELP运行在已超过预期寿命的过时计算机上，并且不再支持原始软件接口。这个建议是使用由华盛顿大学心理和脑科学系的虚拟计算机系统支持的当前软件重写用户界面的程序。这将确保该数据库仍然可供心理语言学社区使用。

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 This ELP is being run on an outdated computer that has outlived its life expectancy and the original software interface is no longer supported.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.