Investigating letter recognition in the brain by varying typeface: An event-related potential study |
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Affiliation: | 1. Centre for Research and Technology Hellas (CERTH), Chemical Process and Energy Resources Institute (CPERI), 6th km Harilaou-Thermi rd, Thessaloniki, 57001, Greece;2. École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), SCI-STI-DK ME, Station 9, CH1015 Lausanne, Switzerland;3. Centre for Research and Technology Hellas (CERTH), Information Technologies Institute (ITI), 6th km Harilaou-Thermi rd, Thessaloniki, 57001, Greece;1. Department of Psychology, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milano, Italy;2. NeuroMI, Milan Center for Neuroscience, Milano, Italy;3. Laboratoire des Fluides Complexes et leurs Réservoirs - UMR5150, Université de Pau et des Pays de l''Adour, 64600 Anglet, France;4. Division of ITCE, Pohang University of Science and Technology, Gyungbuk, South Korea;5. Department of Physics “G.Occhialini” and PLASMAPROMETEO, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milano, Italy |
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Abstract: | We aimed to investigate the contributions of visual letter form and abstract letter identity to the time course of letter recognition, by manipulating the typeface (i.e. font) in which letters were presented. Twenty-six adult participants completed a modified one-back task, where letters where presented in easy-to-read typefaces (“fluent” letter stimuli) or difficult-to-read typefaces (“disfluent” letter stimuli). Task instructions necessitated that participant’s focus on letter identity not visual letter form. Electroencephalography was collected and event-related potentials (ERPs) were calculated relative to letter stimuli. It was found that typeface affected both early-mid (N1 amplitude and P2–N2 amplitude and latency) and late processing (450–600 ms), thereby including time points whereby it is theorised that abstract identity is extracted from visual letter form (that is, 300 ms post-stimulus). Visual features of the letter therefore affect its processing well beyond the currently theorised point at which abstract information is extracted; which could be explained by a feedback loop between abstract letter representations and lower-level visual form processing units, which is not included in current cognitive reading models. |
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Keywords: | Letter recognition Event-related potential Typeface |
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