Familiarity affects visual processing of words.

While previous research has demonstrated that words can be processed more rapidly and/or more accurately than random strings of letters, it has not been convincingly demonstrated that the superior processing of words is a visual effect. In the present experiment, the cases of letters were manipulated in letter strings that were to be compared on the basis of physical identity. Mean response time was shorter for words than for nonwords even for pairs of letter strings that differed only in case (e.g., site-site). This finding implies that the advantage of words over nonwords (the familiarity effect) typically observed in the simultaneous matching task is not due solely to comparison of either the word names or the letter names and, thus, that at least part of the familiarity effect must be due to more rapid formation and/or comparison of visual representations of the two letter strings when they are words. Further analysis failed to reveal a significant involvement of phonemic or lexical codes in the comparison judgments.     

Three-month-olds' visual preference for faces and its underlying visual processing mechanisms

This study was aimed at investigating the face preference phenomenon and its underlying mechanisms at 3 months of age. Using an eye-tracker apparatus, Experiment 1 demonstrated that 3-month-olds prefer natural face images to unnatural ones, replicating and extending previous evidence obtained with schematic facelike stimuli. Experiments 2 and 3 showed that the general mechanisms that induce face preference in newborns could not explain the same phenomenon at 3 months of age, when infants are attracted by perceptual cues more specific to faces. This suggests that signs of a process of cognitive specialization are already present in 3-month-olds' visual behavior toward faces.     

Parallel processing of whole words and morphemes in visual word recognition

Models of morphological processing make different predictions about whether morphologically complex written words are initially decomposed and recognized on the basis of their morphemic subunits or whether they can directly be accessed as whole words and at what point semantics begin to influence morphological processing. In this study, we used unprimed and masked primed lexical decision to compare truly suffixed (darkest) and pseudosuffixed words (glossary) with within-boundary (d ra kest/g ol ssary) to across-boundary (dar ek st/glos as ry) letter transpositions. Significant transposed-letter similarity effects were found independently of the morphological position of the letter transposition, demonstrating that, in English, morphologically complex whole-word representations can be directly accessed at initial word processing stages. In a third masked primed lexical decision experiment, the same materials were used in the context of stem target priming, and it was found that truly suffixed primes facilitate the recognition of their stem-target (darkest–DARK) to the same extent as pseudosuffixed primes (glossary–GLOSS), which is consistent with theories of early morpho-orthographic decomposition. Taken together, our findings provide evidence for both whole-word access and morphological decomposition at initial stages of visual word recognition and are discussed in the context of a hybrid account.     

Parallel processing of whole words and morphemes in visual word recognition

Models of morphological processing make different predictions about whether morphologically complex written words are initially decomposed and recognized on the basis of their morphemic subunits or whether they can directly be accessed as whole words and at what point semantics begin to influence morphological processing. In this study, we used unprimed and masked primed lexical decision to compare truly suffixed (darkest) and pseudosuffixed words (glossary) with within-boundary (d ra kest/g ol ssary) to across-boundary (dar ek st/glos as ry) letter transpositions. Significant transposed-letter similarity effects were found independently of the morphological position of the letter transposition, demonstrating that, in English, morphologically complex whole-word representations can be directly accessed at initial word processing stages. In a third masked primed lexical decision experiment, the same materials were used in the context of stem target priming, and it was found that truly suffixed primes facilitate the recognition of their stem-target (darkest-DARK) to the same extent as pseudosuffixed primes (glossary-GLOSS), which is consistent with theories of early morpho-orthographic decomposition. Taken together, our findings provide evidence for both whole-word access and morphological decomposition at initial stages of visual word recognition and are discussed in the context of a hybrid account.     

Task-dependent sensitisation of perceptual and semantic processing during visual search for words

Two experiments examined the impact of task-set on people's use of the visual and semantic features of words during visual search. Participants' eye movements were recorded while the distractor words were manipulated. In both experiments, the target word was either given literally (literal task) or defined by a semantic clue (categorical task). According to Kiefer and Martens, participants should preferentially use either the visual or semantic features of words depending on their relevance for the task. This assumption was partially supported. As expected, orthographic neighbours of the target word attracted participants' attention more and took longer to reject, once fixated, during the literal task. Conversely, semantic associates of the target word took longer to reject during the categorical task. However, they did not attract participants' attention more than in the literal task. This unexpected finding is discussed in relation to the processing of words in the peripheral visual field.     

Meaningful processing of meaningless stimuli: the influence of perceptual experience on early visual processing of faces

The N170 is an event-related potential component associated with extrastriate visual mechanisms involved in detecting human faces and leading to their characteristic structural encoding. Consequently the N170 discriminates the processing of stimuli providing physiognomic information from the processing of other, similarly complex, visual patterns. We have used this effect to explore the top-down influence of newly acquired experience on the initial visual categorization of physiognomic stimuli. Schematic faces having the inner components mislocated did not elicit an N170 effect in naive participants. However, after normally configured versions of the schematic faces were exposed, suggesting what the ambiguous patterns represented, the same patterns elicited an N170 effect as conspicuous as that elicited by regular schematic faces. This priming effect, which changed the visual processing of distorted faces in extrastriate regions, could not be explained by post-perceptual decisions. Although accounts based on changes in focal attention, or within-vision constraints could not be categorically rejected, this outcome might suggest cognitive penetrability of early visual categorization.     

On the automaticity of emotion processing in words and faces: event-related brain potentials evidence from a superficial task

The degree to which emotional aspects of stimuli are processed automatically is controversial. Here, we assessed the automatic elicitation of emotion-related brain potentials (ERPs) to positive, negative, and neutral words and facial expressions in an easy and superficial face-word discrimination task, for which the emotional valence was irrelevant. Both emotional words and facial expressions impacted ERPs already between 50 and 100 ms after stimulus onset, possibly reflecting rapid relevance detection. Following this initial processing stage only emotionality in faces but not in words was associated with an early posterior negativity (EPN). Therefore, when emotion is irrelevant in a task which requires superficial stimulus analysis, automatically enhanced sensory encoding of emotional content appears to occur only for evolutionary prepared emotional stimuli, as reflected in larger EPN amplitudes to faces, but not to symbolic word stimuli.     

The role of visual and auditory temporal processing in reading irregular and nonsense words.

In the present study, the role of rapid visual and auditory temporal processing in reading irregular and nonsense words was investigated with a group of normal readers. One hundred and five undergraduates participated in various visual and auditory temporal-processing tasks. Readers who primarily adopted the phonological route in reading (nonsense-word readers) showed a trend for better auditory temporal resolution but readers who primarily adopted sight word skills (irregular-word readers) did not exhibit better visual temporal resolution. Both the correlation and stepwise multiple-regression analyses, however, revealed a relationship between visual temporal processing and irregular-word reading as well as a relationship between auditory temporal processing and nonsense-word reading. The results support the involvement of visual and auditory processing in reading irregular and nonsense words respectively, and were discussed with respect to recent findings that only dyslexics with phonological impairment will display temporal deficits. Further, the temporal measures were not effective discriminants for the reading groups, suggesting a lack of association between reading ability and the choice of reading strategy.     

Pictures and words in visual search

Ss in three experiments searched through an array of pictures or words for a target item that had been presented as a picture or a word. In Experiments I and II, the pictures were line drawings of familiar objects and the words were their printed labels; in Experiment III, the stimuli were photographs of the faces of famous people and their corresponding printed names. Search times in Experiments I and II were consistently faster when the array items were pictures than when they were words, regardless of the mode of the target items. Search was also faster with pictures than with words as targets when the search array also consisted of pictures, but target mode had no consistent effect with words as array items. Experiment III yielded a completely different pattern of results: Search time with names as targets and faces as search array items was significantly slower than in the other three conditions, which did not differ from each other. Considered in relation to several theories, the results are most consistent with a dual-coding interpretation. That is, items that are cognitively represented both verbally and as nonverbal images can be searched and compared in either mode, depending on the demands of the task. The mode actually used depends on whether the search must be conducted through an array of pictures or words.     

Survival processing of faces

The mnemonic benefit of rating words according to their relevance in a survival scenario is well documented (e.g., Nairne, Thompson, & Pandeirada, 2007). The present study examined whether the survival processing effect would extend to face stimuli. We tested this hypothesis in five experiments, using multiple survival and control scenarios, real and computer-generated face sets, within- and between-subjects designs, and several memory tests, as well as free recall of survival-relevant and survival-neutral attribute statements written about the person. Although the standard survival processing effect was obtained for survival-relevant and neutral attribute statements, the survival processing effect was not obtained for face memory across all experiments. These results identify an important boundary condition for survival processing benefits.     

No deficiency in left-to-right processing of words in dyslexia but evidence for enhanced visual crowding

Whitney and Cornelissen hypothesized that dyslexia may be the result of problems with the left-to-right processing of words, particularly in the part of the word between the word beginning and the reader's fixation position. To test this hypothesis, we tachistoscopically presented consonant trigrams in the left and the right visual field (LVF, RVF) to 20 undergraduate students with dyslexia and 20 matched controls. The trigrams were presented at different locations (from –2.5° to?+?2.5°) in both visual half fields. Participants were asked to identify the letters, and accuracy rates were compared. In line with the predictions of the SERIOL (sequential encoding regulated by inputs to oscillations within letter units) model of visual word recognition, a typical U-shaped pattern was found at all retinal locations. Accuracy also decreased the further away the stimulus was from the fixation location, with a steeper decrease in the LVF than in the RVF. Contrary to the hypothesis, the students with dyslexia showed the same pattern of results as did the control participants, also in the LVF, apart from a slightly lower accuracy rate, particularly for the central letter. The latter is in line with the possibility of enhanced crowding in dyslexia. In addition, in the dyslexia group but not in the control group the degree of crowding correlated significantly with the students’ word reading scores. These findings suggest that lateral inhibition between letters is associated with word reading performance in students with dyslexia.     

Right hemisphere semantic processing of visual words in an aphasic patient: an fMRI study

This study was designed to identify the neural network supporting the semantic processing of visual words in a patient with large-scale damage to left-hemisphere (LH) language structures. Patient GP, and a control subject, RT, performed semantic and orthographic tasks while brain-activation patterns were recorded using functional magnetic resonance imaging. In RT, the semantic-orthographic comparison activated LH perisylvian and extrasylvian temporal regions comparable to the network of areas activated by non-brain-damaged subjects in other neuroimaging studies of semantic discrimination. In GP, the same comparison activated homologous right-hemisphere regions, demonstrating the ability of the right hemisphere to subserve visual lexicosemantic processes. The results are discussed within the context of the normal right hemisphere's capacity for semantic processing of visual words. Examining results from functional neuroimaging studies on recovery in the context of innate hemispheric abilities may enable reconciliation of disparate claims about mechanisms supporting recovery from aphasia.     

Hemispheric differences in the perception of words and faces in deaf and hearing children

The purpose of this study was to investigate hemispheric functional asymmetry in 18 normal hearing children and 18 congenitally deaf children aged 13-14 years. The task was identification of a visual stimulus (3-letter word or photograph of a face) presented in either the left or right visual field. The children responded by pointing to the target stimulus on a response card which contained four different words or three different faces. The percentage of errors for presentations to the two visual fields were analysed to determine hemispheric dominance. The pattern of hemispheric differences for the hearing children was consistent with that from previous investigations. The results for the deaf children differed from those of the normals. In word perception we observed a right hemisphere advantage and in the face recognition a lack of hemispheric differences. These results point to a lack of auditory experiences which is affecting the functional organization of the two hemispheres. It is suggested that the necessity to make use of visuo-spatial information in the process of communication causes right hemisphere dominance in verbal tasks. This may influence the perception of other visuo-spatial stimuli which may yield a lack of hemispheric asymmetry in face recognition.     

Context effects in the processing of familiar faces

Summary In this paper we report five experiments that investigate the influence of prime faces upon the speed with which familiar faces are recognized and named. Previously, priming had been reported when the prime and target faces were closely associated, e.g., Prince Charles and Princess Diana (Bruce & Valentine, 1986). In Experiment 1 we show that there is a reliable effect of relatedness on a double-familiarity decision, even when the faces are only categorially related, e. g., Kirk Douglas and Clint Eastwood. Then it was shown that such an effect emerges only on a double decision task (Experiments 2 and 3). Experiment 4 showed that on a primed naming task, faces preceded by a categorially related prime were responded to more quickly than those preceded by an unrelated prime, and the effect was due to inhibition. Experiment 5 replicated this effect and also showed that when associatively related primes were used, a facilitatory, and not an inhibitory, effect is found. It is argued that the facilitation of associative priming arises at an earlier locus than the inhibition of categorial priming.     

Models for the processing and identification of faces

Representations of human faces were constructed from Identi-Kit in a comparison of several possible models of information processing relating to facial recognition. There was no experimental evidence that faces were treated as unitary Gestalten, or that the component features were processed to any significant extent in parallel, even when the stimuli were presented as photographic positives in the normal upright mode. Instead, the best theoretical model to fit the data involved serial self-terminating processing, without replacement. Task difficulty, determining both processing time and number of errors made, was found to be a function both of the number of critical features present and the orientation (upright or inverted). Photographic negatives were handled in every way the same as positives. The more difficult the task, the stronger the evidence for a serial model and the greater the effects of practice. The latter suggests that, given time, Ss could handle inverted presentations as readily as upright ones, and that inversion may merely increase the difficulty in separating out the individual features for subsequent processing.     

Material-specific perceptual interference for visual words and faces: implications for models of capacity limitations, attention, and laterality

Four experiments were conducted to test the hypothesis that perceptual interference effects would be greatest among items that are processed by the same hemisphere than among items processed by different hemispheres. Recognition of two peripheral faces, flanked on either side of a central item that also had to be identified, was worse when the item was a face than when the item was a word. The opposite results were obtained for peripheral word identification by naming (Experiment 1). Identical results were obtained when a nonsense form was substituted for the central face (Experiment 2). Since unfamiliar faces and nonsense forms are processed primarily by the right hemisphere and words are processed by the left, the results are consistent with the hypothesis. The interference effect was the same even when the central nonsense shape was identified by naming, suggesting that the locus of the effect is not at response selection (Experiment 3). Ignoring the central item only reduces the interference effects but does not eliminate it (Experiment 4). Although in general words were perceived better in the right visual field, and faces were perceived better in the left, small fluctuations in the magnitude but not in the direction of perceptual asymmetries were sometimes noted with changes in the central item. The fluctuations were usually opposite to those predicted by attentional models of perceptual asymmetries.     

Concreteness effects in the processing of Chinese words

The present study examined the relationship between word concreteness and word frequency using event-related potential (ERP) measurements during a lexical decision task. Potential effects of concreteness in the processing of verbs were also examined. ERPs were recorded from 119 scalp electrodes in 23 right-handed participants. The results showed that concrete nouns were associated with a more negative ERP than abstract nouns at 200-300 and 300-500 ms after stimulus onset, regardless of word frequency. Between 300 and 500 ms, concrete nouns and abstract nouns produced differentiated scalp distributions, respectively. In terms of verbs, concreteness only produced small difference in ERP primarily in the central-parietal sites of the left hemisphere.     

Isolating visual units in the perception of words and nonwords

In three experiments, reaction times for same-different judgments were obtained for pairs of words, pronounceable nonwords (pseudowords), and unpronounceable nonwords. The stimulus strings were printed either in a single letter case or in one of several mixtures of upper- and lowercase letters. In Experiment 1, the stimuli were common one- and two-syllable words; in Experiment 2, the stimuli included both words and pseudowords; and in Experiment 3, words, pseudowords, and nonwords were used. The functional visual units for each string type were inferred from the effects that the number and placement of letter case transitions had onsame reaction time judgments. The evidence indicated a preference to encode strings in terms of multiletter perceptual units if they are present in the string. The data .also suggested that whole words can be used as functional visual units, although the extent of their use depends on contextual parameters such as knowledge that a word will be presented.     

Lateralization in the visual perception of Chinese characters and words

It has been reported that tachistoscopic perception of single Chinese characters is better with a left-visual-field (LVF) than with a right-visual-field (RVF) presentation and that of Chinese words consisting of characters is better with a RVF presentation (O. J. L. Tzeng, D. L. Hung, B. Cotton, & S.-Y. Wang, 1979, Nature (London), 382, 499-501). In this study, the nature of this character-word difference in lateralization was explored in a task in which stimuli were presented unilaterally to a visual field for recognition test. Four types of stimuli were used: Single character, single pseudo- or noncharacter, two-character word, and two-character pseudoword. Results show (a) no visual-field advantage for illegal characters and words, (b) a LVF-advantage effect for characters associated with a more prominent LVF than RVF character-superiority effect, (c) a RVF-advantage effect for words associated with a more prominent RVF than LVF word-superiority effect, and (d) these two visual-field effects for characters and words being not absolute, they occur only with a low rather than with a high recognition for their respective illegal counterparts. These results suggest that the character-word difference is due to a more efficient lexical interpretation of character stimuli in the right than in the left hemisphere and a more efficient lexical interpretation of word stimuli in the left than in the right hemisphere.