The Word Superiority Effect in central and peripheral vision

The Word Superiority Effect (WSE) is a well-known phenomenon in reading research, where words are reported more accurately than single letters or non-words. We report two experiments that investigate the WSE in the central and peripheral visual field, as well as laterality differences in the perception of words and letters, using methods based on the Theory of Visual Attention. The results show a WSE in the central visual field, reflected in mean scores, perception thresholds, and processing speed, whereas the effect is eliminated or reversed in the periphery. This may be caused by crowding, which prevents lexical analysis of a word in the periphery. We conclude that perception of words and letters differs according to location in the visual field. Linking our results to previous studies of crowding effects in patients with reading impairments, we hypothesize that similar mechanisms may limit normal word peripheral processing.     

A test of the Sophisticated Guessing Theory of word perception

Under difficult viewing conditions, a letter in a familiar word can be perceived more accurately than the same letter alone or in a string of unrelated letters. Sophisticated Guessing Theory asserts that perception is more accurate when a letter appears in a word because its identity is constrained by the identity of neighboring context letters. Experiment 1 tested the following prediction: A letter in a word should be perceived more accurately in strongly constraining word contexts than in weakly constraining word contexts. No such trend was found using a number of different measures of contextual constraint and perceptual accuracy. Experiment 2 verified that, with the same conditions used in Experiment 1 to test Sophisticated Guessing Theory, a strong perceptual advantage could be obtained for letters in words vs. letters alone or in unrelated-letter strings. Several alternative theories of word perception are discussed. The most attractive asserts that for words an additional higher-level perceptual code is formed that is more resistant to degradation than the code formed for letters.     

An early electrophysiological response associated with expertise in letter perception

Expertise with print is likely to optimize visual processes for recognizing characters of a familiar writing system. Although brain activations have been identified for words and letter strings in contrast with other stimuli, relatively little work has focused on the neural basis of single-letter perception. English readers and Chinese-English bilinguals participated in an ERP study and performed a 1-back identity judgment on Roman letters, Chinese characters, pseudofonts, and their string versions. The Chinese-English bilinguals showed an enhanced N170 for both Roman letters and Chinese characters relative to pseudofonts. For the non-Chinese readers, the N170 amplitude was larger for Roman letters relative to Chinese characters and pseudofonts. Our results suggest that changes in relatively early visual processes underlie expert letter perception.     

Letters and words in word identification

Studies by Barron and Henderson (1977) and Johnson (1975) provide evidence that whole words may be the unit of identification in word perception, rather than single letters. Johnson found that words were matched faster than a letter to the first letter in a word. Barron and Henderson found faster matching times for words than for legal non-word items in a letter-matching task. These findings support the interpretation that words are identified before individual letters. If so, a word-frequency effect should be expected. Experiments 1 and 2 tested for word vs. first-letter-in-word differences, as well as for a word-frequency effect in simultaneous and delayed visual matching tasks. In the simultaneous task, first letters in words were matched faster than words. In the delayed task, there was no difference between matching words or matching the first letters in words. With both tasks there was a word-frequency effect for word matches but not for first-letter-in-word matches. In Experiment 3, first-letter matching time was unrelated to word frequency or lexical status, although it did vary with orthographic legality. These results, on the whole, are consistent with a race model in which identifications take place simultaneously at word, letter-cluster, and letter levels, rather than a sequential model in which the whole word is identified before the component letters.     

网络词语与非网络词语的知觉差异:时间知觉、空间距离知觉与知觉范围

根据具身认知理论,人们的认知会受到身体活动的影响。网络环境下人的身体活动受到限制,因而其认知活动与非网络环境存在很大的差异。本研究目的在于考察人们对网络词语与非网络的日常词语的时间知觉,空间距离知觉与知觉范围是否有差异。结果发现被试对网络词语的时间知觉更长;网络词语的空间距离感与日常词语没有显著差异;在启动网络词语之后,被试的知觉范围缩小,对中心刺激的反应显著快于边缘刺激。本研究发现了网络词语加工在时间知觉和知觉范围上的变化。     

The role of configuration in the identification of visually degraded words

Two experiments were carried out in which reaction time for identification of words in sets of four was measured. The words were of three letters, with dichotomous variation of the first and third letters, in either upper- or lowercase, with letters chosen to give maximum variation in word configuration in lowercase. Four types of display were used, differing in size and masking. In Experiment 1, the words were easy to identify in uppercase as well as in lowercase, because the letters were easily discriminable in either case, and the results showed no advantage to lowercase words at any level of degradation. In Experiment 2, the letters were more difficult to discriminate in uppercase, and with the most severe degradation, the words in lowercase were identified more rapidly than those in uppercase. Thus the reaction time results showed an advantage of the configural properties available in lowercase only with words difficult to identify in uppercase and with extreme amounts of degradation. Error analyses of both experiments showed that errors were made to individual letters, not on the basis of the configuration, for words in both cases. It is concluded that letter processing occurs even when there is evidence for the use of configural information, thus implying a predominant role of letter perception in word identification. Some reservation is expressed whether whole-word configuration is the only pertinent configural property and whether the results from such simple identification tasks are appropriate to an understanding of natural reading.     

Distractor effects during processing of words under load

The perceptual load model of attention (Lavie, 1995) suggests that processing of irrelevant distractors depends on the extent to which a relevant task engages full perceptual capacity. Word recognition models suggest that letter perception is facilitated in words relative to nonwords. These models led us to hypothesize that increasing the number of letters would increase perceptual load more for nonwords than for words, and thus would be more likely to exhaust capacity and eliminate distractor processing for nonwords than for words. In support of this hypothesis, we found that increasing the number of search letters increases RTs more for nonwords than for words and only reduces distractor interference for nonwords. Thus, although readers process words more efficiently than nonwords, they also become more prone to distraction when processing words.     

Visual word recognition of three-letter words as derived from the recognition of the constituent letters

Word recognition is one of the basic processes involved in reading. In this connection, a model for word recognition is proposed consisting of a perceptual and a decision stage. It is supposed that, in the perceptual stage, the formation of possible words proceeds by separate identification of each of the letters of the stimulus word in their positions. Letter perception is taken to be conditional on position because of interaction effects from neighboring letters. These effects are dependent on both position in the word and retinal eccentricity, which are of particular relevance in reading. The letter-based approach rests on the strong relationship between the results from single-letter recognition in meaningless strings and in real words. Next, in the decision step, the many alternatives generated in the perceptual stage are matched with a vocabulary of real words. It is supposed that the final choice from among the remaining words is made in accordance with the constant ratio rule; frequency effects are not separately incorporated in the model. All predictions of the model are generated by means of data from earlier experiments. Despite being not optimally suited for this purpose, the predictions compare favorably with responses in word-recognition experiments.     

Object and action picture naming in English and Greek

When two orthographically similar words are displayed using rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP), the repeated letters in the second critical word (W2) are not detected, leading to a deficit in reporting this word known as repetition blindness (RB). In Turkish, letters containing diacritic markings (e.g., y, ö) are considered separate letters, yet are visually highly similar to their non-diacritic analogues (s,o). Two experiments used the phenomenon of RB to investigate whether diacritic letters are represented as more similar to their non-diacritic analogues than are two unrelated letters. In Experiment 1, substantially more RB was found for words differing in just a diacritic (i y im-isim) compared to orthographic neighbours (words differing in a visually non-similar letter, such as ilim-isim). In Experiment 2, the amount of RB for identical words (isim-isim) was comparable to words that differed by a single diacritic marking (i y im-isim). We conclude that diacritic letters are mentally represented as variants of their non-diacritic analogue. Letter / word recognition researchers may be interested in pursuing these findings using standard techniques such as backward masking and orthographic priming.     

Preliminary letter identification in the perception of words and nonwords.

Words with mixed uppercase and lowercase letters (e.g. fAdE) were perceived more accurately than mixed-case pseudowords (e.g. gAdE), and mixed-case pseudowords were perceived more accurately than mixed-case unrelated letter strings (e.g. eFdT). In addition, same-case words were perceived more accurately than their mixed-case counterparts. The same held true for pseudowords but not for unrelated letter strings. The results are compatible with the view that both letter identify and visual form information are used in word perception.     

Orthographic repetition blindness

Repetition blindness (RB) is the failure to report the second occurrence of a repeated word, when words are sequentially and briefly displayed (Kanwisher, 1987). RBis also observed for non-identical words, such as home, dome . Explanations for non-identity RB assume that similarity at the level of the whole word causes the secondword to be suppressed ('similarity inhibition'). Three experiments demonstrate that RB is robust for diverse types of orthographic relatedness, including critical words that share only their first initial letter, their last two letters, first three letters, middle three letters, beginning and final letters, three alternating letters, and three non-aligned letters (as in chance hand ). The theoretical construct of similarity inhibition may be able to account for these data, although one mechanism previously proposed in the literature, neighbourhood inhibition, is probably not a useful way to explain the data on RB for words sharing only one or two letters. Weintroduce an alternative explanation for orthographic RB: Only the repeated letters are suppressed, and amount of RB depends on howeasily the perceiver can reconstruct the target word from the non-suppressed letters.     

Enduring influence of the purpose of experiences: Encoding-retrieval interactions in word and pseudoword perception

Letters in words are identified more easily than are letters in nonwords or letters alone. These effects may depend on separate representations of general lexical attributes and of specific contexts, or on memory for particular experiences. We required subjects to associate meanings with some pseudowords and to perform a physical analysis on others. After 24 h, subjects identified pseudowords associated with meanings more accurately than novel or physically analyzed pseudowords. However, perceptual accuracy was independent of recall of meanings, suggesting that meaning was not available as a context-free resource. Instead, perceptual accuracy was correlated with the interdependence of stimulus components in perception, suggesting that encountering pseudowords for different purposes had caused different perceptual organizations, which exercised lasting influence. We concluded that the perceptual advantage of words may be incidental to the purposes for which words are ordinarily processed, and may depend on preservation of particular perceptual experiences.     

Temporal order of strokes primes letter recognition

Does the perception of objects that are the result of human actions reflect the underlying temporal structure of the actions that gave rise to them? We tested whether the temporal order of letter strokes influences letter recognition. In three experiments, participants were asked to identify letters that temporally unfolded as an additive sequence of letter strokes, either consistent or inconsistent with common writing action. Participants were significantly faster to identify letters from consistent temporal sequences, indicating that the initial part of the sequence contained sufficient information to prime letter recognition. We suggest that letter perception reflects the temporal structure of letter production; in other words, Simon sees as Simon does.     

Temporal order of strokes primes letter recognition

Does the perception of objects that are the result of human actions reflect the underlying temporal structure of the actions that gave rise to them? We tested whether the temporal order of letter strokes influences letter recognition. In three experiments, participants were asked to identify letters that temporally unfolded as an additive sequence of letter strokes, either consistent or inconsistent with common writing action. Participants were significantly faster to identify letters from consistent temporal sequences, indicating that the initial part of the sequence contained sufficient information to prime letter recognition. We suggest that letter perception reflects the temporal structure of letter production; in other words, Simon sees as Simon does.     

Critical influence of particular experiences in the perception of letters,words, and phrases

Letters are generally easier to identify in regular words or pseudowords than alone or in irregular items. This advantage seems to imply that word perception depends on knowledge of general structure. We found, however, that the perceptual advantage of letters in pseudowords over single letters could be increased by preexposing the pseudowords, or reversed by preexposing the single letters. Similarly, preexposure of words alone or in phrases resulted in a perceptual advantage for whichever display had been experienced. The success of identification also depended on the type of task previously performed on test items, and on the reinstatement of prior processing and perceptual context, rather than on only the test items and task themselves. We concluded that memory preserves information about the details of particular perceptual experiences, and that identification depends critically on the similarity of current demands and processing context to the demands and contexts of particular previous experiences.     

Cognitive and linguistic factors affect visual feature integration

Five experiments investigated the influence of cognitive and linguistic factors on the integration of color and letter-shape information. Subjects were briefly presented strings of colored letters that varied in pronounceability and familiarity. Detection and search tasks required subjects to identify the color of predesignated target letters. It was proposed that errors in integrating color and shape would be less likely with items from different perceptual units than from items within the same perceptual unit. If words, at some level of perceptual analysis, are processed as units whereas nonwords are processed by individual letters, then there should be more letter-shape and color feature integration errors with words than with nonwords. The first two experiments tested this prediction by comparing feature integration errors with words and nonwords. The remaining experiments manipulated letter-string pronounceability, familiarity, and the presence of vowels to isolate the factors that may influence feature integration. The results demonstrate that cognitive and linguistic factors, such as familiarity and pronounceability, can influence the combination of colors and shapes in perception.     

The QWERTY Effect: How typing shapes the meanings of words.

The QWERTY keyboard mediates communication for millions of language users. Here, we investigated whether differences in the way words are typed correspond to differences in their meanings. Some words are spelled with more letters on the right side of the keyboard and others with more letters on the left. In three experiments, we tested whether asymmetries in the way people interact with keys on the right and left of the keyboard influence their evaluations of the emotional valence of the words. We found the predicted relationship between emotional valence and QWERTY key position across three languages (English, Spanish, and Dutch). Words with more right-side letters were rated as more positive in valence, on average, than words with more left-side letters: the QWERTY effect. This effect was strongest in new words coined after QWERTY was invented and was also found in pseudowords. Although these data are correlational, the discovery of a similar pattern across languages, which was strongest in neologisms, suggests that the QWERTY keyboard is shaping the meanings of words as people filter language through their fingers. Widespread typing introduces a new mechanism by which semantic changes in language can arise.     

Effect of consonant/vowel letter organisation on the syllable counting task: evidence from English

Recent studies in alphabetic writing systems have investigated whether the status of letters as consonants or vowels influences the perception and processing of written words. Here, we examined to what extent the organisation of consonants and vowels within words affects performance in a syllable counting task in English. Participants were asked to judge the number of syllables in written words that were matched for the number of spoken syllables but comprised either 1 orthographic vowel cluster less than the number of syllables (hiatus words, e.g., triumph) or as many vowel clusters as syllables (e.g., pudding). In 3 experiments, we found that readers were slower and less accurate on hiatus than control words, even when phonological complexity (Experiment 1), number of reduced vowels (Experiment 2), and number of letters (Experiment 3) were taken into account. Interestingly, for words with or without the same number of vowel clusters and syllables, participants’ errors were more likely to underestimate the number of syllables than to overestimate it. Results are discussed in a cross-linguistic perspective.     

The salience of silent letters in children’s memory for word spellings

To compare children’s memory for silent and pronounced letters in familiar spellings of words, 7- to 10-year-olds were given two tasks. First, they imagined word spellings and decided whether target letters were present. Then they recalled the words associated with the target letters. Five experiments yielded similar findings. Pronounced letters were recognized somewhat more accurately than silent letters. However, silent letters were detected more rapidly in words than pronounced letters were, and silent letters prompted superior recall of words. The influence of several factors, such as the particular words chosen, the position of letters, and the expectancies of subjects, was ruled out in one or another experiment. Two explanations for findings are proposed. The favorite is that effects reflect the way silent letters are stored in long-term memory when spellings are learned. The other is that events occurring in the experiment enhanced episodic memory for silent letters.     

Reading through a noisy channel: why there's nothing special about the perception of orthography

The goal of research on how letter identity and order are perceived during reading is often characterized as one of "cracking the orthographic code." Here, we suggest that there is no orthographic code to crack: Words are perceived and represented as sequences of letters, just as in a dictionary. Indeed, words are perceived and represented in exactly the same way as other visual objects. The phenomena that have been taken as evidence for specialized orthographic representations can be explained by assuming that perception involves recovering information that has passed through a noisy channel: the early stages of visual perception. The noisy channel introduces uncertainty into letter identity, letter order, and even whether letters are present or absent. We develop a computational model based on this simple principle and show that it can accurately simulate lexical decision data from the lexicon projects in English, French, and Dutch, along with masked priming data that have been taken as evidence for specialized orthographic representations.