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Melcher D, Alaberkyan A, Anastasaki C, Liu X, Deodato M, Marsicano G, Almeida D. An early effect of the parafoveal preview on post-saccadic processing of English words. Atten Percept Psychophys 2024:10.3758/s13414-024-02916-4. [PMID: 38956003 DOI: 10.3758/s13414-024-02916-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 06/05/2024] [Indexed: 07/04/2024]
Abstract
A key aspect of efficient visual processing is to use current and previous information to make predictions about what we will see next. In natural viewing, and when looking at words, there is typically an indication of forthcoming visual information from extrafoveal areas of the visual field before we make an eye movement to an object or word of interest. This "preview effect" has been studied for many years in the word reading literature and, more recently, in object perception. Here, we integrated methods from word recognition and object perception to investigate the timing of the preview on neural measures of word recognition. Through a combined use of EEG and eye-tracking, a group of multilingual participants took part in a gaze-contingent, single-shot saccade experiment in which words appeared in their parafoveal visual field. In valid preview trials, the same word was presented during the preview and after the saccade, while in the invalid condition, the saccade target was a number string that turned into a word during the saccade. As hypothesized, the valid preview greatly reduced the fixation-related evoked response. Interestingly, multivariate decoding analyses revealed much earlier preview effects than previously reported for words, and individual decoding performance correlated with participant reading scores. These results demonstrate that a parafoveal preview can influence relatively early aspects of post-saccadic word processing and help to resolve some discrepancies between the word and object literatures.
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Affiliation(s)
- David Melcher
- Psychology Program, Division of Science, New York University Abu Dhabi, PO Box 129188, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
- Center for Brain and Health, NYUAD Research Institute, New York University Abu Dhabi, PO Box 129188, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
| | - Ani Alaberkyan
- Psychology Program, Division of Science, New York University Abu Dhabi, PO Box 129188, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
| | - Chrysi Anastasaki
- Psychology Program, Division of Science, New York University Abu Dhabi, PO Box 129188, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
| | - Xiaoyi Liu
- Psychology Program, Division of Science, New York University Abu Dhabi, PO Box 129188, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
- Department of Psychology, Princeton University, Washington Rd, Princeton, NJ, 08540, USA
| | - Michele Deodato
- Psychology Program, Division of Science, New York University Abu Dhabi, PO Box 129188, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
- Center for Brain and Health, NYUAD Research Institute, New York University Abu Dhabi, PO Box 129188, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
| | - Gianluca Marsicano
- Department of Psychology, University of Bologna, Viale Berti Pichat 5, 40121, Bologna, Italy
- Centre for Studies and Research in Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Bologna, Via Rasi e Spinelli 176, 47023, Cesena, Italy
| | - Diogo Almeida
- Psychology Program, Division of Science, New York University Abu Dhabi, PO Box 129188, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
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Robotham RJ, Starrfelt R. Comparing word and face recognition - An insoluble conundrum? Cortex 2024; 176:237-241. [PMID: 38760242 DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2024.04.010] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/13/2023] [Revised: 03/20/2024] [Accepted: 04/30/2024] [Indexed: 05/19/2024]
Affiliation(s)
- Ro J Robotham
- Copenhagen Neuropsychology Lab, Department of Psychology, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.
| | - Randi Starrfelt
- Copenhagen Neuropsychology Lab, Department of Psychology, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
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Tien M, Albonico A, Barton JJS. Faces, English words and Chinese characters: a study of dual-task interference in mono-and bilingual speakers. Exp Brain Res 2023; 241:1131-1144. [PMID: 36856801 PMCID: PMC9975443 DOI: 10.1007/s00221-023-06580-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/21/2022] [Accepted: 02/19/2023] [Indexed: 03/02/2023]
Abstract
The many-to-many hypothesis suggests that face and visual-word processing tasks share neural resources in the brain, even though they show opposing hemispheric asymmetries in neuroimaging and neuropsychologic studies. Recently it has been suggested that both stimulus and task effects need to be incorporated into the hypothesis. A recent study found dual-task interference between face and text functions that lateralized to the same hemisphere, but not when they lateralized to different hemispheres. However, it is not clear whether a lack of interference between word and face recognition would occur for other languages, particularly those with a morpho-syllabic script, like Chinese, for which there is some evidence of greater right hemispheric involvement. Here, we used the same technique to probe for dual-task interference between English text, Chinese characters and face recognition. We tested 20 subjects monolingual for English and 20 subjects bilingual for Chinese and English. We replicated the prior result for English text and showed similar results for Chinese text with no evidence of interference with faces. We also did not find interference between Chinese and English text. The results support a view in which reading English words, reading Chinese characters and face identification have minimal sharing of neural resources.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marko Tien
- grid.17091.3e0000 0001 2288 9830Human Vision and Eye Movement Laboratory, Departments of Medicine (Neurology), Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, Psychology, University of British Columbia, 2550 Willow Street, Vancouver, BC V5Z 3N9 Canada
| | - Andrea Albonico
- grid.17091.3e0000 0001 2288 9830Human Vision and Eye Movement Laboratory, Departments of Medicine (Neurology), Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, Psychology, University of British Columbia, 2550 Willow Street, Vancouver, BC V5Z 3N9 Canada
| | - Jason J. S. Barton
- grid.17091.3e0000 0001 2288 9830Human Vision and Eye Movement Laboratory, Departments of Medicine (Neurology), Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, Psychology, University of British Columbia, 2550 Willow Street, Vancouver, BC V5Z 3N9 Canada
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The mechanisms supporting holistic perception of words and faces are not independent. Mem Cognit 2022; 51:966-981. [PMID: 36376620 DOI: 10.3758/s13421-022-01369-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 10/23/2022] [Indexed: 11/15/2022]
Abstract
The question of whether word and face recognition rely on overlapping or dissociable neural and cognitive mechanisms received considerable attention in the literature. In the present work, we presented words (aligned or misaligned) superimposed on faces (aligned or misaligned) and tested the interference from the unattended stimulus category on holistic processing of the attended category. In Experiment 1, we found that holistic face processing is reduced when a face was overlaid with an unattended, aligned word (processed holistically). In Experiment 2, we found a similar reduction of holistic processing for words when a word was superimposed on an unattended, aligned face (processed holistically). This reciprocal interference effect indicates a trade-off in holistic processing of the two stimuli, consistent with the idea that word and face recognition may rely on non-independent, overlapping mechanisms.
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Feizabadi M, Singh M, Albonico A, Barton JJS. The inversion effect in word recognition: the effect of language familiarity and handwriting. Perception 2022; 51:578-590. [PMID: 35731649 DOI: 10.1177/03010066221108859] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/15/2022]
Abstract
Humans have expertise with visual words and faces. One marker of this expertise is the inversion effect. This is attributed to experience with those objects being biased towards a canonical orientation, rather than some inherent property of object structure or perceptual anisotropy. To confirm the role of experience, we measured inversion effects in word matching for familiar and unfamiliar languages. Second, we examined whether there may be more demands on reading expertise with handwritten stimuli rather than computer font, given the greater variability and irregularities in the former, with the prediction of larger inversion effects for handwriting. We recruited two cohorts of subjects, one fluent in Farsi and the other in Punjabi, neither of whom were able to read the other's language. Subjects performed a match-to-sample task with words in either computer fonts or handwritings. Subjects were more accurate and faster with their familiar language, even when it was inverted. Inversion effects were present for the familiar but not the unfamiliar language. The inversion effect in accuracy for handwriting was larger than that for computer fonts in the familiar language. We conclude that the word inversion effect is generated solely by orientation-biased experience, and that demands on this expertise are greater with handwriting than computer font.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Mehar Singh
- University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
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