A backwards glance at words: Using reversed-interior masked primes to test models of visual word identification

Modelling orthographic similarity effects in recognition memory reveals support for open bigram representations of letter coding

A variety of letter string representations has been proposed in the reading literature to account for empirically established orthographic similarity effects from masked priming studies. However, these similarity effects have not been explored in episodic memory paradigms and very few memory models have employed orthographic representation of words. In the current work, through two recognition memory experiments employing word and pseudoword stimuli respectively, we empirically established a set of key orthographic similarity effects for the first time in recognition memory - namely the substitution effect, transposition effect and reverse effect in recognition memory of words and pseudowords, and a start-letter importance in recognition memory of words. Subsequently, we compared orthographic representations from the reading literature including slot coding, closed-bigram, open-bigram and the overlap model. Each of these representations was situated in a global matching model and fitted to recognition performance via Luce's choice rule in a hierarchical Bayesian framework. Model selection results showed support for the open-bigram representation in both experiments.

Raeding with the fingres: Towards a universal model of letter position coding

Letter position coding in word recognition has been widely investigated in the visual modality (e.g., labotarory is confusable with laboratory), but not as much in the tactile modality using braille, leading to an incomplete understanding of whether this process is modality-dependent. Unlike sighted readers, braille readers do not show a transposed-letter similarity effect with nonadjacent transpositions (e.g., labotarory = labodanory; Perea et al., 2012). While this latter finding was taken to suggest that the flexibility in letter position coding was due to visual factors (e.g., perceptual uncertainty in the location of visual objects (letters)), it is necessary to test whether transposed-letter effects occur with adjacent letters to reach firm conclusions. Indeed, in the auditory modality (i.e., another serial modality), a transposed-phoneme effect occurs for adjacent but not for nonadjacent transpositions. In a lexical decision task, we examined whether pseudowords created by transposing two adjacent letters of a word (e.g., laboartory) are more confusable with their base word (laboratory) than pseudowords created by replacing those letters (laboestory) in braille. Results showed that transposed-letter pseudowords produced more errors and slower responses than the orthographic controls. Thus, these findings suggest that the mechanism of serial order, while universal, can be shaped by the sensory modality at play.

Searching beyond the looking glass with sandwich priming

Duñabeitia et al. (NeuroImage 54(4), 3004-3009, 2011) demonstrated that mirror letters induce the same electrophysiological response as canonical letters during the orthographic stage of visual word recognition. However, behavioral evidence in support of such an effect has remained scarce. We hypothesize that the poor reliability of the behavioral data could be due to the lack of sensitivity of the paradigms used in the literature. In Experiment 1 and Experiment 2, we compared conventional and sandwich-masked priming paradigms. Results showed that mirror primes (mirror) produced a significant priming effect on high-frequency words in the case of sandwich priming only. In Experiment 3, we used sandwich priming with a new material set to address a number of concerns regarding prime-target visual overlap. We obtained a graded facilitatory mirror-letter priming effect that acted additively with lexical frequency, thus supporting the idea that it originates in the fast automatic orthographic stage. Given that the graded priming effect provides little support for the idea of the complete preservation of mirror invariance for non-reversal letters, complementary explanations are explored.

Disentangling the Role of Deviant Letter Position on Cognate Word Processing

The way of coding letter position has been extensively assessed during the recognition of native words, leading to the development of a new generation of models that assume more flexible letter position coding schemes compared to classical computational models such as the interactive activation (IA) model. However, determining whether similar letter position encoding mechanisms occur during the bilingual word recognition has been largely less explored despite its implications for the leading model of bilingual word recognition (multilink) as it assumes the input-coding scheme of the IA model. In this study, we aimed to examine this issue through the manipulation of the position of the deviant letter of cognate words (external and internal letters). Two experiments were conducted with Catalan-Spanish bilinguals (a masked priming lexical decision task and a two-alternative forced-choice task) and their respective monolingual controls. The results revealed a differential processing for the first letter in comparison to the other letters as well as modulations as a function of language cue, suggesting amendments to the input-coding scheme of the multilink model.

Can rotated words be processed automatically? Evidence from rotated repetition priming

Visual word processing has its own dedicated neural system that, due to the novelty of this activity, is unlikely to have acquired its specialization through natural selection. Understanding the properties of this system could shed light on its recruitment and the background of its disorders. Although recognition of simple visual objects is orientation invariant, this is not necessarily the case for written words. We used a masked repetition priming paradigm to find out whether words retain their readability when viewed in atypical orientations. Subjects had to read out upright target words that were preceded by rotated prime words of the same or different identity. Priming duration was varied in Experiment 1 to assess the temporal emergence of a rotated priming effect. In Experiment 2, the letter order of the prime words was reversed in order to differentiate the processing stage where priming occurs. The orientational pattern of the priming effects seen in our results mostly confirms earlier word recognition models, but also serves a more detailed view about the effects of orientation on word form processing.

Is letter position coding when reading in L2 affected by the nature of position coding used when bilinguals read in their L1?

Using four-character Chinese word targets, Yang, Chen, Spinelli, and Lupker (Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 45(8), 1511-1526, 2019) and Yang, Hino et al. (Journal of Memory and Language, 113, 104017, 2020) demonstrated that backward primes (Roman alphabet example-dcba priming ABCD) produce large masked priming effects. This result suggests that character position information is quite imprecisely coded by Chinese readers when reading in their native language. The present question was, If Chinese readers have evolved a reading system not requiring precise position information, would Chinese-English bilinguals show more extreme transposed letter priming effects when processing English words than both English monolinguals and other types of bilinguals whose L2 is English? In Experiment 1, Chinese-English bilinguals, but not English monolinguals, showed a clear backward priming effect in a lexical decision task. In Experiment 2, the parallel backward priming effect was absent for both Spanish-English and Arabic-English bilinguals. Apparently, the orthographic coding system that Chinese-English bilinguals use when reading in their L2 leans heavily on the flexible/imprecise position coding process that they develop for reading in their L1.

The impact of consonant–vowel transpositions on masked priming effects in Italian and English

There are now a number of reports in the literature that transposed letter (TL) priming effects emerge when two consonants are transposed (e.g., caniso-CASINO) but not when two vowels are transposed (e.g., cinaso-CASINO). In the present article, four masked priming lexical decision experiments, two in Italian and two in English, are reported in which TL priming effects involving the transposition of two adjacent consonants (e.g., atnenna-ANTENNA) were contrasted with those involving the transposition of a vowel and an adjacent consonant (e.g., anetnna-ANTENNA), a contrast not directly examined in the previous literature. In none of the experiments was there any indication that the priming effects were different sizes for the two types of transpositions, including Experiment 4 in which a sandwich priming paradigm was used. These results support the assumption of most orthographic coding models that the consonant–vowel status of the letters is not relevant to the nature of the orthographic code. The question of how to reconcile these results with other TL manipulations investigating vowel versus consonant transpositions is discussed.