Strengthening semantic and orthographic associations among
words in a lexicon may help to improve memory processes
related to fluent organizing and retrieval of language. In the
present study, we examined how training in several different
word games impacts later retrieval access for the words.
Games included a word-stem completion task (orthographic),
a free association task (semantic), and a crossword paradigm
task (orthographic+semantic). A within-subject experiment
was used to compare the relative effectiveness of these three
training methods on a lexical association task performed prior
to and following training. Results showed that the games were
able to improve participants’ decision times, and the increased
fluency in the lexical association task due to the free association
task was greater than the other games. We will further
apply and examine this study with non-native English speakers.