Sixty of the possible beginning phonemes of English monosyllables were paired with the vowel /a/ in nonsense syllables, and used in illustrative one-syllable words. The sixty manners of commencing words had been scaled in terms of their relative perceptual similarity-dissimilarity in sounds. Both syllables and words were divided into three levels in keeping with this scaling. Pairs of syllables were arranged in a manner such that ten syllables were paired with ten others of the same or another distance level. In each comparison ten pairs of syllables were presented visually via tachistoscope to experimental subjects for one second. The subjects had response sheets that carried one member of each pair. They were asked to supply the missing members. The procedure was replicated using a 1.5 second exposure and then repeated with pairs of words as stimuli. (Author)