Does Top-Down Feedback Modulate the Encoding of Orthographic Representations During Visual-Word Recognition?

2016 ◽  
Vol 63 (5) ◽  
pp. 278-286 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manuel Perea ◽  
Ana Marcet ◽  
Marta Vergara-Martínez
Keyword(s):  
Word Recognition ◽  
Lexical Decision ◽  
Response Times ◽  
Word Identification ◽  
Masked Priming ◽  
Visual Word ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Orthographic Representations ◽  
Visual Word Identification ◽  
Matched Case

Abstract. In masked priming lexical decision experiments, there is a matched-case identity advantage for nonwords, but not for words (e.g., ERTAR-ERTAR <  ertar-ERTAR; ALTAR-ALTAR = altar-ALTAR). This dissociation has been interpreted in terms of feedback from higher levels of processing during orthographic encoding. Here, we examined whether a matched-case identity advantage also occurs for words when top-down feedback is minimized. We employed a task that taps prelexical orthographic processes: the masked prime same-different task. For “same” trials, results showed faster response times for targets when preceded by a briefly presented matched-case identity prime than when preceded by a mismatched-case identity prime. Importantly, this advantage was similar in magnitude for nonwords and words. This finding constrains the interplay of bottom-up versus top-down mechanisms in models of visual-word identification.

Phonemic representations in morphological segmentation of written English words

2009 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 194-211 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cintia S. Widmann ◽  
Robin K. Morris
Keyword(s):  
Word Recognition ◽  
Lexical Decision ◽  
Visual Word Recognition ◽  
Complex Structure ◽  
Masked Priming ◽  
Visual Word ◽  
Morphological Segmentation ◽  
Orthographic Representations ◽  
Phonemic Representations ◽  
Complex Words

We addressed the issue of the kinds of representations involved in morphological segmentation during visual word recognition. Specifically, we asked whether morphological segmentation operates on phonemic representations. The results of two masked priming experiments indicated that words with appearance of morphological complex structure (ponder) primed their apparent embedded roots (POND) as much as actual morphologically complex words (dreamer) primed their actual embedded roots (DREAM). However, the effect was significantly reduced in naming and it became inhibitory in lexical decision for primes (caper) whose phonemic representations did not completely overlap with those of their potential roots (CAP) but whose orthographic representations did. This suggests that morphological segmentation is not restricted to orthographic representations, but that it also engages phonemic representations.

Lexical and Sublexical Components of Age-related Changes in Neural Activation during Visual Word Identification

2003 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 475-487 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wythe L. Whiting ◽  
David J. Madden ◽  
Linda K. Langley ◽  
Laura L. Denny ◽  
Timothy G. Turkington ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Lexical Decision ◽  
Word Frequency ◽  
Word Length ◽  
Word Identification ◽  
Temporal Cortex ◽  
Visual Word ◽  
Neural Activation ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Visual Word Identification

Positron emission tomography data (Madden, Langley, et al., 2002) were analyzed to investigate adult age differences in the relation between neural activation and the lexical (word frequency) and sublexical (word length) components of visual word identification. The differential influence of these components on reaction time (RT) for word/nonword discrimination (lexical decision) was generally similar for the two age groups, with word frequency accounting for a greater proportion of lexical decision RT variance relative to word length. The influence of word length on RT, however, was relatively greater for older adults. Activation in regions of the ventral occipito-temporal cortex was related to the RT changes associated with word frequency and length for older adults, but not for younger adults. Specifically, older adults' frequency effects were related to activation in both anterior (Brodmann's area [BA] 37) and posterior (BAs 17 and 18) regions of the occipito-temporal pathway, whereas word length effects were only associated with posterior activation (BA 17). We conclude that aging affects the neural mechanisms supporting word identification performance although behavioral measures of this ability are generally constant as a function of age.

scholarly journals Morphological priming of inflectional suffixes

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katarina Marjanovic ◽  
Davide Crepaldi
Keyword(s):  
Priming Effect ◽  
Word Identification ◽  
Masked Priming ◽  
Visual Word ◽  
Priming Paradigm ◽  
Morphological Priming ◽  
Visual Word Identification ◽  
The Rich ◽  
Complex Words

Morphologically complex words are processed through their constituent morphemes during visual word recognition. While this has been primarily established through the stem priming paradigm, the role of shared affixes is more controversial. Also, most evidence on affix priming comes from derivation, while inflectional priming remains largely unaddressed. Here we present two lexical decision, masked priming experiments filling this gap. Taking advantage of the rich inflectional pattern of Slovene, we assessed inflectional suffix priming (mestam–HALJAM), and compared it to the well-established stem priming effect (haljov–HALJAM): while the latter is solid as expected, the former seems to be weak to non–existing. Results further indicate that there is no interaction between sharing a stem and sharing an inflectional suffix—neither stem nor suffix priming is boosted when primes and targets also share the other morpheme. These data indicate an important difference between stems, derivational affixes and inflectional affixes, which we consider in the context of models of visual word identification and information theory.

scholarly journals The Omission of Accent Marks Does Not Hinder Word Recognition: Evidence From Spanish

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ana Marcet ◽  
María Fernández-López ◽  
Melanie Labusch ◽  
Manuel Perea
Keyword(s):  
Word Recognition ◽  
Lexical Decision ◽  
Lexical Decision Task ◽  
Response Times ◽  
Word Identification ◽  
Decision Task ◽  
Similar Response ◽  
Opposite Pattern ◽  
Semantic Categorization ◽  
Blocked Design

Recent research has found that the omission of accent marks in Spanish does not produce slower word identification times in go/no-go lexical decision and semantic categorization tasks [e.g., cárcel (prison) = carcel], thus suggesting that vowels like á and a are represented by the same orthographic units during word recognition and reading. However, there is a discrepant finding with the yes/no lexical decision task, where the words with the omitted accent mark produced longer response times than the words with the accent mark. In Experiment 1, we examined this discrepant finding by running a yes/no lexical decision experiment comparing the effects for words and non-words. Results showed slower response times for the words with omitted accent mark than for those with the accent mark present (e.g., cárcel &lt; carcel). Critically, we found the opposite pattern for non-words: response times were longer for the non-words with accent marks (e.g., cárdil &gt; cardil), thus suggesting a bias toward a “word” response for accented items in the yes/no lexical decision task. To test this interpretation, Experiment 2 used the same stimuli with a blocked design (i.e., accent mark present vs. omitted in all items) and a go/no-go lexical decision task (i.e., respond only to “words”). Results showed similar response times to words regardless of whether the accent mark was omitted (e.g., cárcel = carcel). This pattern strongly suggests that the longer response times to words with an omitted accent mark in yes/no lexical decision experiments are a task-dependent effect rather than a genuine reading cost.

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

Psihologija ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 103-116 ◽  
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.

scholarly journals Letter chunk frequency does not explain morphological masked priming

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mara De Rosa ◽  
Davide Crepaldi
Keyword(s):  
Visual Processing ◽  
Word Identification ◽  
Masked Priming ◽  
Visual Word ◽  
System Sensitivity ◽  
Early Visual Processing ◽  
Morphological Status ◽  
Visual Word Identification ◽  
Rule Out

Research on visual word identification has extensively investigated the role of morphemes, recurrent letter chunks that convey a fairly regular meaning (e.g.,lead-er-ship). Masked priming studies highlighted morpheme identification in complex (e.g., sing-er) and pseudo-complex (corn-er) words, as well as in nonwords (e.g., basket-y). The present study investigated whether such sensitivity to morphemes could be rooted in the visual system sensitivity to statistics of letter (co)occurrence. To this aim, we assessed masked priming as induced by nonword primes obtained by combining a stem (e.g.,bulb) with (i) naturally frequent, derivational suffixes (e.g.,-ment), (ii) non-morphological, equally frequent word endings (e.g.,-idge), and (iii) non-morphological, infrequent word endings (e.g.,-kle). In two additional tasks, we collected interpretability and word-likeness measures for morphologically-structured nonwords, to assess whether priming is modulated by such factors. Results indicate that masked priming is not affected by either the frequency or the morphological status of word endings. Our findings are in line with models of early visual processing based on automatic stem/word extraction, and rule out letter chunk frequency as a main player in the early stages of visual word identification. Nonword interpretability and word-likeness do not affect this pattern.

Is Masked Neighbor Priming Inhibitory?

2007 ◽  
Vol 54 (2) ◽  
pp. 113-119 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wendy De Moor ◽  
Liesbeth Van der Herten ◽  
Tom Verguts
Keyword(s):  
Word Recognition ◽  
Visual Word Recognition ◽  
Response Times ◽  
Masked Priming ◽  
Visual Word ◽  
Theoretical Problem ◽  
Priming Effects ◽  
Word Priming ◽  
Neighbor Effects ◽  
Priming Technique

Abstract. To investigate neighbor effects in visual word recognition, the masked priming technique holds considerable advantages over unprimed methods, because a target word is used as its own control. However, inhibitory neighbor effects obtained with masked priming are still open for different interpretations, because the primes differ across conditions. Given this theoretical problem, it is useful to investigate neighbor priming effects using a prime as its own control. This option is available in the incremental priming technique ( Jacobs, Grainger, & Ferrand, 1995 ), in which a within-condition baseline is created by comparing the response times (RTs) to a target when it is primed at different prime durations. In this study, we examined masked neighbor priming using this technique. Both the traditional and the within-condition baseline indicated that masked neighbor word priming is inhibitory in nature. The results are discussed in terms of current theories of visual word recognition.

scholarly journals Is there a cost at encoding words with joined letters during visual word recognition?

2018 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 279-291 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manuel Roldán ◽  
Ana Marcet ◽  
Manuel Perea
Keyword(s):  
Word Recognition ◽  
Lexical Decision ◽  
Word Frequency ◽  
Visual Word Recognition ◽  
High Frequency ◽  
Lexical Processing ◽  
Response Times ◽  
Empirical Support ◽  
Visual Word ◽  
The Cost

AbstractFor simplicity, models of visual-word recognition have focused on printed words composed of separated letters, thus overlooking the processing of cursive words. Manso de Zuniga, Humphreys, and Evett (1991) claimed that there is an early “cursive normalization” encoding stage when processing written words with joined letters. To test this claim, we conducted a lexical decision experiment in which words were presented either with separated or joined letters. To examine if the cost of letter segmentation occurs early in processing, we also manipulated a factor (i.e., word-frequency) that is posited to affect subsequent lexical processing. Results showed faster response times for the words composed of separated letters than for the words composed of joined letters. This effect occurred similarly for low- and high-frequency words. Thus, the present data offer some empirical support to Manso de Zuniga et al.’s (1991) idea of an early “cursive normalization” stage when processing joined-letters words. This pattern of data can be used to constrain the mapping of the visual input into letter and word units in future versions of models of visual word recognition.

scholarly journals Letter chunk frequency does not explain morphological masked priming

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mara De Rosa ◽  
Davide Crepaldi
Keyword(s):  
Visual Processing ◽  
Word Identification ◽  
Masked Priming ◽  
Visual Word ◽  
System Sensitivity ◽  
Early Visual Processing ◽  
Morphological Status ◽  
Visual Word Identification ◽  
Rule Out

AbstractResearch on visual word identification has extensively investigated the role of morphemes, recurrent letter chunks that convey a fairly regular meaning (e.g., lead-er-ship). Masked priming studies highlighted morpheme identification in complex (e.g., sing-er) and pseudo-complex (corn-er) words, as well as in nonwords (e.g., basket-y). The present study investigated whether such sensitivity to morphemes could be rooted in the visual system sensitivity to statistics of letter (co)occurrence. To this aim, we assessed masked priming as induced by nonword primes obtained by combining a stem (e.g., bulb) with (i) naturally frequent, derivational suffixes (e.g., -ment), (ii) non-morphological, equally frequent word-endings (e.g., -idge), and (iii) non-morphological, infrequent word-endings (e.g., -kle). In two additional tasks, we collected interpretability and word-likeness measures for morphologically-structured nonwords, to assess whether priming is modulated by such factors. Results indicate that masked priming is not affected by either the frequency or the morphological status of word-endings, a pattern that was replicated in a second experiment including also lexical primes. Our findings are in line with models of early visual processing based on automatic stem/word extraction, and rule out letter chunk frequency as a main player in the early stages of visual word identification. Nonword interpretability and word-likeness do not affect this pattern.

Jalapeno or jalapeño: Do diacritics in consonant letters modulate visual similarity effects during word recognition?

2020 ◽  
Vol 41 (3) ◽  
pp. 579-593 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ana Marcet ◽  
Hnazand Ghukasyan ◽  
María Fernández-López ◽  
Manuel Perea
Keyword(s):  
Word Recognition ◽  
Lexical Decision ◽  
Word Processing ◽  
Word Identification ◽  
Masked Priming ◽  
Visual Similarity ◽  
Special Role ◽  
Critical Letter ◽  
Prime Target

AbstractPrior research has shown that word identification times to DENTIST are faster when briefly preceded by a visually similar prime (dentjst; i↔j) than when preceded by a visually dissimilar prime (dentgst). However, these effects of visual similarity do not occur in the Arabic alphabet when the critical letter differs in the diacritical signs: for the target the visually similar one-letter replaced prime (compare and is no more effective than the visually dissimilar one-letter replaced prime Here we examined whether this dissociative pattern is due to the special role of diacritics during word processing. We conducted a masked priming lexical decision experiment in Spanish using target words containing one of two consonants that only differed in the presence/absence of a diacritical sign: n and ñ. The prime-target conditions were identity, visually similar, and visually dissimilar. Results showed an advantage of the visually similar over the visually dissimilar condition for muñeca-type words (muneca-MUÑECA < museca-MUÑECA), but not for moneda-type words (moñeda-MONEDA = moseda-MONEDA). Thus, diacritical signs are salient elements that play a special role during the first moments of processing, thus constraining the interplay between the “feature” and “letter” levels in models of visual word recognition.

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