scholarly journals A Computational Model of Normal and Impaired Lexical Decision: Graded Semantic Effects

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ya-Ning Chang ◽  
Steve Furber ◽  
Matthew Lambon Ralph ◽  
Stephen Welbourne
Keyword(s):  
Word Recognition ◽  
Lexical Decision ◽  
Computational Model ◽  
Visual Word Recognition ◽  
Semantic Processing ◽  
Visual Word ◽  
Neurologically Impaired ◽  
Pure Alexia ◽  
Reading Patterns ◽  
Underlying Mechanisms

AbstractLexical decision is an important paradigm in studies of visual word recognition yet the underlying mechanisms supporting the activity are not well understood. While most models of visual word recognition focus on orthographic processing as the primary locus of the lexical decision, a number of behavioural studies have suggested a flexible role for semantic processing regulated by the similarity of the nonword foil to real words. Here we developed a computational model that interactively combines visual-orthographic, phonological and semantic processing to perform lexical decisions. Importantly, the model was able to differentiate words from nonwords by dynamically integrating measures of polarity across the key processing layers. The model was more reliant on semantic information when nonword foils were pseudowords as opposed to consonant strings. Moreover, the model was able to capture a range of standard reading effects in lexical decision. Damage to the model also resulted in reading patterns observed in patients with pure alexia, phonological dyslexia, and semantic dementia, demonstrating for the first time that both normal and neurologically-impaired lexical decision can be addressed in a connectionist computational model of reading.

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

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.

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 Do ‘blacheap’ and ‘subcheap’ both prime ‘cheap’? An investigation of morphemic status and position in early visual word processing

2018 ◽  
Vol 71 (8) ◽  
pp. 1645-1654 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lauren Heathcote ◽  
Kate Nation ◽  
Anne Castles ◽  
Elisabeth Beyersmann
Keyword(s):  
Word Recognition ◽  
Lexical Decision ◽  
Visual Word Recognition ◽  
Word Processing ◽  
Visual Word ◽  
Early Stages ◽  
Complex Words ◽  
Morphological Relationship ◽  
Prime Target ◽  
Real Complex

Much research suggests that words comprising more than one morpheme are decomposed into morphemes in the early stages of visual word recognition. In the present masked primed lexical decision study, we investigated whether or not decomposition occurs for both prefixed and suffixed nonwords and for nonwords which comprise a stem and a non-morphemic ending. Prime–target relatedness was manipulated in three ways: (1) primes shared a semantically transparent morphological relationship with the target (e.g., subcheap-CHEAP, cheapize-CHEAP); (2) primes comprised targets and non-affixal letter strings (e.g., blacheap-CHEAP, cheapstry-CHEAP); and (3) primes were real, complex words unrelated to the target (e.g., miscall-CHEAP, idealism-CHEAP). Both affixed and non-affixed nonwords significantly facilitated the recognition of their stem targets, suggesting that embedded stems are activated independently of whether they are accompanied by a real affix or a non-affix. There was no difference in priming between stems being embedded in initial and final string positions, indicating that embedded stem activation is position-independent. Finally, more priming was observed in the semantically interpretable affixed condition than in the non-affixed condition, which points to a semantic licensing mechanism during complex novel word processing.

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