Visual word recognition and vowelization in Arabic: new evidence from lexical decision task performances

Abstract Reading is one of the most important milestones a child achieves throughout development. Above the letter level, the syllable has been shown to play a relevant role at early stages of visual word recognition in adult skilled readers. However, studies aiming to examine when, during reading acquisition, the syllable emerges as a functional sublexical unit are scarce, and the studies conducted so far have led to inconsistent results. In this work, beginning and intermediate European-Portuguese (EP) developing readers performed a sandwich masked lexical decision task in which CV (e.g., RU.MOR[rumour]) and CVC (e.g., CIS.NE[swan]) first-syllable EP words were preceded either by syllable congruent (e.g., rum.ba-RU.MOR, cis.ra-CIS.NE), syllable incongruent (e.g., rum.ba-RU.MOR, ci.ser-CIS.NE), unrelated (e.g., va.cra-RU.MOR, zar.vo-CIS.NE) pseudowords primes, or identity (e.g., ru.mour-RU.MOUR, cis.ne-CIS.NE) primes. Results showed reliable syllable effects only for intermediate readers and for CV and CVC words alike. Findings are discussed attending to current models of visual word recognition.

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Relative Embodiment of Japanese Verbs

International Journal of Psychological Studies ◽

10.5539/ijps.v12n3p1 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 12 (3) ◽

pp. 1

Author(s):

Masaya Mochizuki ◽

Naoto Ota

Keyword(s):

Word Recognition ◽

Lexical Decision ◽

Lexical Decision Task ◽

Visual Word Recognition ◽

Word Meaning ◽

Reaction Times ◽

Naming Task ◽

Visual Word ◽

Decision Task ◽

Transitive Verbs

Studies examining visual word recognition have revealed that sensorimotor information is associated with the meaning of and influences the processing of words. In this study, we collected ratings of relative embodiment, which reflects how much physical movement is involved in a word meaning, for 219 Japanese transitive verbs. We then investigated how the ratings affect visual word recognition, using three different tasks: a word-naming task, a lexical decision task, and a syntactic classification task. We found that reaction times were faster and correct rates were higher (in the lexical decision task) for words with higher relative embodiment ratings than for those with lower ratings. These findings indicate that relative embodiment affects processing of Japanese verbs as well as of English verbs.

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Letter connectedness and Arabic visual word recognition

Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology ◽

10.1177/1747021820926155 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 73 (10) ◽

pp. 1660-1674

Author(s):

Ibrahim Alluhaybi ◽

Jeffrey Witzel

Keyword(s):

Word Recognition ◽

Lexical Decision ◽

Lexical Decision Task ◽

Visual Word Recognition ◽

Visual Word ◽

Decision Task ◽

Processing Times ◽

Word Level ◽

Processing Cost ◽

Identity Priming

This study investigates the processing consequences of letter connectedness during Arabic visual word recognition. Specifically, this study examined (a) whether there is a processing cost associated with letter connectedness during word-level reading and (b) whether this factor modulates form-level activation among words during lexical access. Experiment 1 tested one-, two-, and three-chunk Arabic words and nonwords in a lexical decision task with masked identity priming. Experiment 2 tested the same stimuli in a lexical decision task with masked form priming, in which prime–target pairs differed by a letter associated with the morphological root. In both experiments, there was a clear processing cost for letter connectedness—one-chunk words had longer processing times than two-chunk words, which had longer processing times than three-chunk words. Comparable processing time differences were also found for nonwords, suggesting that letter connectedness influences Arabic word recognition at a prelexical orthographic processing stage. Furthermore, although reliable priming was found in both the experiments, there was a suggestion that letter connectedness modulated form priming effects (Experiment 2), with the strongest effect for three-chunk word targets. These findings are taken to indicate that letter connectedness is an important factor that should be considered—and controlled for—in examinations of Arabic visual word recognition.

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Is RoAsT tougher than StEAk?: The effect of case mixing on perception of multi-letter graphemes

Psihologija ◽

10.2298/psi1001103h ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 43 (1) ◽

pp. 103-116 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Jelena Havelka ◽

Clive Frankish

Keyword(s):

Word Recognition ◽

Lexical Decision ◽

Visual Word Recognition ◽

Word Reading ◽

Response Times ◽

Visual Word ◽

Decision Task ◽

Response Latencies ◽

Visual Segmentation ◽

Word Shape

Case mixing is a technique that is used to investigate the perceptual processes involved in visual word recognition. Two experiments examined the effect of case mixing on lexical decision latencies. The aim of these experiments was to establish whether different case mixing patterns would interact with the process of appropriate visual segmentation and phonological assembly in word reading. In the first experiment, case mixing had a greater effect on response times to words when it led to visual disruption of the multi-letter graphemes (MLGs) as well as the overall word shape (e.g. pLeAd), compared to when it disrupted overall word shape only (e.g. plEAd). A second experiment replicated this finding with words in which MLGs represent either the vowel (e.g. bOaST vs. bOAst) or the consonant sound (e.g. sNaCK vs. sNAcK). These results confirm that case mixing can have different effect depending on the type of orthographic unit that is broken up by the manipulation. They demonstrate that graphemes are units that play an important role in visual word recognition, and that manipulation of their presentation by case mixing will have a significant effect on response latencies to words in a lexical decision task. As such these findings need to be taken into account by the models of visual word recognition.

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Visual Word Recognition of Monosyllabic Monomorphemic French Words: New Evidence From Lexical Decision, Naming, and Progressive Demasking

PsycEXTRA Dataset ◽

10.1037/e527312012-752 ◽

2008 ◽

Author(s):

Ludovic Ferrand ◽

Patrick Bonin ◽

Alain Meot ◽

Maria Augustinova ◽

Boris New ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Word Recognition ◽

Lexical Decision ◽

Visual Word Recognition ◽

Visual Word ◽

French Words ◽

New Evidence

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A Magnetic Stimulation Examination of Orthographic Neighborhood Effects in Visual Word Recognition

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience ◽

10.1162/089892903321593081 ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 15 (3) ◽

pp. 354-363 ◽

Cited By ~ 27

Author(s):

Michal Lavidor ◽

Vincent Walsh

Keyword(s):

Word Recognition ◽

Lexical Decision ◽

Visual Word Recognition ◽

Neighborhood Effects ◽

Magnetic Stimulation ◽

Right Hemisphere ◽

Visual Word ◽

Decision Task ◽

The Right ◽

Orthographic Neighbors

The split-fovea theory proposes that visual word recognition is mediated by the splitting of the foveal image, with letters to the left of fixation projected to the right hemisphere (RH) and letters to the right of fixation projected to the left hemisphere (LH). We applied repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) over the left and right occipital cortex during a lexical decision task to investigate the extent to which word recognition processes could be accounted for according to the split-fovea theory. Unilateral rTMS significantly impaired lexical decision latencies to centrally presented words, supporting the suggestion that foveal representation of words is split between the cerebral hemispheres rather than bilateral. Behaviorally, we showed that words that have many orthographic neighbors sharing the same initial letters (“lead neighbors”) facilitated lexical decision more than words with few lead neighbors. This effect did not apply to end neighbors (orthographic neighbors sharing the same final letters). Crucially, rTMS over the RH impaired lead-, but not end-neighborhood facilitation. The results support the split-fovea theory, where the RH has primacy in representing lead neighbors of a written word.

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EXPRESS: Prepotent task-irrelevant semantic information is dampened by domain-specific control mechanisms during visual word recognition

Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology ◽

10.1177/17470218211030863 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 174702182110308

Author(s):

Simone Sulpizio ◽

Remo Job ◽

Paolo Leoni ◽

Michele Scaltritti

Keyword(s):

Word Recognition ◽

Lexical Decision ◽

Visual Word Recognition ◽

Stroop Task ◽

Semantic Processing ◽

Semantic Information ◽

Visual Word ◽

Decision Task ◽

Semantic Interference ◽

Task Irrelevant

We investigated whether semantic interference occurring during visual word recognition is resolved using domain-general control mechanism or using more specific mechanisms related to semantic processing. We asked participants to perform a lexical decision task with taboo stimuli, which induce semantic interference, as well as well as a semantic Stroop task and a Simon task, intended as benchmarks of linguistic-semantic and non-linguistic interference, respectively. Using a correlational approach, we investigated potential similarities between effects produced in the three tasks, both at the level of overall means and as a function of response speed (delta-plot analysis). Correlations selectively surfaced between the lexical decision and the semantic Stroop task. These findings suggest that, during visual word recognition, semantic interference is controlled by semantic-specific mechanisms, which intervene to face prepotent but task-irrelevant semantic information interfering with the accomplishment of the task's goal.

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Increased Neural Efficiency in Visual Word Recognition: Evidence from Alterations in Event-Related Potentials and Multiscale Entropy

Entropy ◽

10.3390/e23030304 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 23 (3) ◽

pp. 304

Author(s):

Kelsey Cnudde ◽

Sophia van Hees ◽

Sage Brown ◽

Gwen van der Wijk ◽

Penny M. Pexman ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Word Recognition ◽

Visual Word Recognition ◽

Response Times ◽

Event Related Potentials ◽

Visual Word ◽

Multiscale Entropy ◽

Decision Task ◽

Late Positive Component ◽

Domain Specific ◽

Related Potentials

Visual word recognition is a relatively effortless process, but recent research suggests the system involved is malleable, with evidence of increases in behavioural efficiency after prolonged lexical decision task (LDT) performance. However, the extent of neural changes has yet to be characterized in this context. The neural changes that occur could be related to a shift from initially effortful performance that is supported by control-related processing, to efficient task performance that is supported by domain-specific processing. To investigate this, we replicated the British Lexicon Project, and had participants complete 16 h of LDT over several days. We recorded electroencephalography (EEG) at three intervals to track neural change during LDT performance and assessed event-related potentials and brain signal complexity. We found that response times decreased during LDT performance, and there was evidence of neural change through N170, P200, N400, and late positive component (LPC) amplitudes across the EEG sessions, which suggested a shift from control-related to domain-specific processing. We also found widespread complexity decreases alongside localized increases, suggesting that processing became more efficient with specific increases in processing flexibility. Together, these findings suggest that neural processing becomes more efficient and optimized to support prolonged LDT performance.

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