What are the letters e and é in a language with vowel reduction? The case of Catalan

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Ana Marcet ◽  
María Fernández-López ◽  
Ana Baciero ◽  
Albert Sesé ◽  
Manuel Perea
Keyword(s):  
Word Recognition ◽  
Similar Condition ◽  
Masked Priming ◽  
Decision Task ◽  
Vowel Reduction ◽  
Parsimonious Explanation ◽  
Rapid Activation

Abstract Although the Latin-based orthographies of most Western languages employ vowels with accent marks (e.g., é vs. e), extant models of letter and word recognition are agnostic as to whether these accented letters and their non-accented counterparts are represented by common or separate abstract units. Recent research in French with a masked priming alphabetic decision task was interpreted as favoring the idea that accented and non-accented vowels are represented by separate abstract orthographic units (orthographic account: é↛e and e↛é; Chetail & Boursain, 2019). However, a more parsimonious explanation is that salient (accented) vowels are less perceptually similar to non-salient (non-accented) vowels than vice versa (perceptual account: e→é, but é↛e; Perea et al., 2021a; Tversky, 1977). To adjudicate between the two accounts, we conducted a masked priming alphabetic decision experiment in Catalan, a language with a complex orthography-to-phonology mapping for non-accented vowels (e.g., e→/e/, /ə/, /ε/). Results showed faster responses in the identity than in the visually similar condition for accented targets (é–É < e–É), but not for non-accented targets (e–E = é–E). Neither of the above accounts can fully capture this pattern. We propose an explanation based on the rapid activation of both orthographic and phonological codes.

scholarly journals Root-letter priming in Maltese visual word recognition

2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-25
Author(s):  
Jonathan A. Geary ◽  
Adam Ussishkin
Keyword(s):  
Word Recognition ◽  
Visual Word Recognition ◽  
Masked Priming ◽  
Morphological Processing ◽  
Visual Word ◽  
Facilitatory Effect ◽  
Decision Task ◽  
Semitic Languages ◽  
Reading Experience

Abstract We report on a visual masked priming experiment designed to explore the role of morphology in Maltese visual word recognition. In a lexical decision task, subjects were faster to judge Maltese words of Semitic origin that were primed by triconsonantal letter-strings corresponding to their root-morphemes. In contrast, they were no faster to judge Maltese words of non-Semitic origin that were primed by an equivalent, but non-morphemic, set of three consonant letters, suggesting that morphological overlap, rather than simple form overlap, drives this facilitatory effect. Maltese is unique among the Semitic languages for its orthography: Maltese alone uses the Latin alphabet and requires that all vowels are written, making such triconsonantal strings illegal non-words to which Maltese readers are never exposed, as opposed to other Semitic languages such as Hebrew in which triconsonantal strings often correspond to real words. Under a decomposition-based account of morphological processing, we interpret these results as suggesting that across reading experience Maltese readers have abstracted out and stored root-morphemes for Semitic-origin words lexically, such that these morphemic representations can be activated by exposure to root-letters in isolation and thus prime morphological derivatives.

Word recognition in a language with multiple orthographies: A semantic masked-priming study of L1 Mandarin learners of L3 Japanese

2019 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 235-255
Author(s):  
Seth Goss
Keyword(s):  
Word Recognition ◽  
Lexical Decision ◽  
Lexical Decision Task ◽  
Mandarin Chinese ◽  
Native Language ◽  
Masked Priming ◽  
Similar Degree ◽  
Decision Task ◽  
Conceptual Information ◽  
Priming Paradigm

Abstract This study explored the organization of the multilingual lexicon in L3 learners of Japanese from an L1 Mandarin Chinese background. Using a masked-priming paradigm, it examined whether native-language translations of Japanese words facilitated the recognition of native-morpheme hiragana words and katakana-script loanwords to a similar degree. Participants performed a lexical decision task on a series of hiragana and katakana words, which were preceded by three prime types: noncognate translations, same-script duplicates, and unrelated words. Results showed an equal magnitude of priming from L1 translations for L3 Japanese targets in both scripts, suggesting that conceptual information is made rapidly available for word recognition via an L1 prime. However, priming in the same-script duplicate condition differed numerically between hiragana and katakana, indicating that lower-familiarity katakana loanwords are not activated as rapidly as words in the more-familiar hiragana script. Findings are discussed in relation to models of the multilingual lexicon.

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

Entropy ◽  
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.

The Orthographic Consistency Effect in French and Spanish: Phoneme-to-Grapheme Mappings Influence Auditory Word Recognition

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alberto Furgoni ◽  
Antje Stoehr ◽  
Clara D. Martin
Keyword(s):  
Word Recognition ◽  
Decision Task ◽  
Writing Systems ◽  
Auditory Lexical Decision ◽  
Auditory Word ◽  
Consistency Effect ◽  
Auditory Word Recognition ◽  
Phonemic Level ◽  
Phonological Unit ◽  
Orthographic Consistency

PurposeIn languages with alphabetical writing systems, the relationship between phonology and orthography is strong. Phonology-to-orthography mappings can be consistent (i.e., one phonological unit corresponds to one orthographic unit) or inconsistent (i.e., one phonological unit corresponds to multiple orthographic units). This study investigates whether the Orthographic Consistency Effect (OCE) emerges at the phonemic level during auditory word recognition, regardless of the opacity of a language’s writing system.MethodsThirty L1-French (opaque language) and 30 L1-Spanish (transparent language) listeners participated in an L1 auditory lexical decision task which included stimuli with either only consistently-spelled phonemes or both consistently-spelled and a number of inconsistently-spelled phonemes. ResultsThe results revealed that listeners were faster at recognizing consistently-spelled words than inconsistently-spelled words. This implies that consistently-spelled words are recognized more easily than inconsistent ones. As for pseudoword processing, there is a numerical trend that might indicate a higher sensibility of French listeners to phoneme-to-grapheme inconsistencies. ConclusionsThese findings have theoretical implications: inconsistent phoneme-to-grapheme mappings, like inconsistencies at the level of the syllable or rhyme, impact auditory word recognition. Moreover, our results suggest that the OCE should occur in all languages with alphabetical writing systems, regardless of their level of orthographic opacity.

The role of phonology in visual word recognition

2009 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 167-190 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martina Penke ◽  
Kathrin Schrader
Keyword(s):  
Word Recognition ◽  
Visual Word Recognition ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Reading Proficiency ◽  
Visual Word ◽  
Decision Task ◽  
Semantic Field ◽  
Semantic Decision ◽  
Semantic Decision Task ◽  
The Given

The goal of this paper is to investigate the role phonology plays for visual word recognition and the change this role undergoes in the course of reading acquisition by providing data on German readers at different stages of reading proficiency. Erroneous responses in a semantic decision task, which employs words that are either homophonous or graphemically similar to a word of a previously introduced semantic field, were compared at different stages of reading development (i.e. in second- and fourth-grade school children and adults). In all age groups, subjects committed significantly more errors with homophones than with words graphemically similar to a word related to the given semantic field. The results show that phonological recoding plays an important role for visual word recognition not only with beginners but also in skilled readers and, hence, corroborate phonological models of reading.

The use of a rapid priming technique I: Adult language processing

1999 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-91
Author(s):  
Chris Davis ◽  
Anne Castles
Keyword(s):  
Word Recognition ◽  
Incomplete Information ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Word Processing ◽  
Recognition System ◽  
Masked Priming ◽  
Written Language ◽  
Psycholinguistic Research ◽  
Skilled Readers ◽  
Priming Technique

ABSTRACTThis paper discusses the background and use of the masked priming procedure in adult psycholinguistic research. Using this technique, we address the issue of how precise the letter and word processing systems of adults is for rapidly displayed stimuli. Data is reviewed that suggests that, for skilled readers, the letter and word recognition system is sensitively tuned to the discrimination demands imposed on it by the properties of the written language. That is, the recognition system is able to be discriminative where precision is required, but is also able to consider and use incomplete information when this is predictive.

The Interaction of Word Frequency and Stimulus Quality in the Lexical Decision Task: Now you See It, Now you Don't

1988 ◽  
Vol 40 (4) ◽  
pp. 757-770 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. M. Wilding
Keyword(s):  
Word Recognition ◽  
Lexical Decision ◽  
Lexical Decision Task ◽  
Word Frequency ◽  
Decision Task ◽  
Stimulus Quality ◽  
Joint Effects ◽  
Two Factors

Two experiments are reported that examined the joint effects of word frequency and stimulus quality in the context of a lexical decision task. In the first experiment the interval between response to a stimulus and onset of the next stimulus was 0.8 sec, and the effect of the two factors was additive. In the second this interval was 3.3 sec, and the effect of reducing stimulus quality was greater for infrequent words than for frequent words. This is similar to the result of Norris (1984). The inability of current models of word recognition to explain this finding is discussed.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document