Electroencephalographic responses to SMS shortcuts

Abstract

As the popularity of sending messages electronically increases, so does the necessity of conveying messages more efficiently. One way of increasing efficiency is to abbreviate words and expressions by combining letters with numbers such as gr8 for "great," using acronyms, such as lol for "laughing out loud," or clippings such as msg for "message." The present study compares the processing of shortcuts to the processing of closely matched pseudo-shortcuts. ERPs were recorded while participants were performing a lexical decision task. Response times showed that shortcuts were categorized more slowly as nonwords than pseudo-shortcuts. The ERP results showed no differences between shortcuts and pseudo-shortcuts at time windows 50-150 ms and 150-270 ms, but there were significant differences between 270 and 500 ms. These results suggest that at early stages of word recognition, the orthographic and phonological processing is similar for shortcuts and pseudo-shortcuts. However, at the time of lexical access, shortcuts diverge from pseudoshortcuts, suggesting that shortcuts activate stored lexical representations.© 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Keywords:SMS shortcuts N400 Lexical decision task IntroductionThe idea of Short Message Service (SMS) was born as part of the development of the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) network in the mid-1980s (Crystal, 2008). SMS had a slow start with only 0.4 text messages per month being sent in the late 1990s, but at the beginning of 2001, about 12.2 billion messages per year were sent in the United Kingdom alone (Crystal, 2008). Gartner, the industry analysts, predicted that the total number of SMS sent per year would reach 2.4 trillion by 2010 (Crystal, 2008). As the popularity of sending SMS and communicating online increased, numerous abbreviations were introduced to facilitate the generation of messages. Some abbreviations are combinations of letters and numbers, such as gr8 for great, others are acronyms, such as lol for laughing out loud, yet others are clippings, such as msg for message. These abbreviations can now also be found in poetry and spoken communication, and there are even prizes for the best SMS message (e.g., the Golden Thumb). Early use of SMS is related to children's literacy development, as studies have shown that the more text abbreviations preteenage children use in their text messages, the higher they score on tests for reading and vocabulary (Plester et al., 2008). Despite their popularity, very little is known about the processing of shortcuts. Using shortcuts is efficient and convenient for the sender of the message. However, is it also beneficial for the reader? It had been shown that reading sentences that consisted almost exclusively of SMS language was slower than reading conventionally written sentences (Berger and Coch, 2010;Perea et al., 2009).However, when shortcuts are used sparingly in a sentence, they appear to cause difficulties only in early stages of word

Processing words and Short Message Service shortcuts in sentential contexts: An eye movement study

“…This implies that the shortcuts were more difficult to recognize, but that their semantic processing did not differ much from that of words. This is in line with a recent study showing that shortcuts engage processes of semantic access similar to conventionally spelled words (Ganushchak, Krott, & Meyer, 2010a; see also Ganushchak, Krott, & Meyer, 2010b).…”

Does Net-Speak Experience Interfere With the Processing of Standard Words? Evidence From Net-Speak Word Recognition and Semantic Decisions

“…The results showed that shortcuts were categorized as non-words more slowly than pseudo-shortcuts and that the N400 amplitude (270-500 ms) was more negative for pseudo-shortcuts than for shortcuts. Ganushchak et al's (2010) results suggested that shortcuts activated stored lexical representations of their basic words and that their semantic processing characteristics were therefore similar to those of standard words. Ganushchak et al (2012) used a masked priming lexical decision paradigm to compare the priming effects of shortcuts and their corresponding words (conventional forms).…”

From gr8 to great: Lexical Access to SMS Shortcuts

“…This suggests that shortcuts are harder to recognize, but that, once recognized, they are integrated into the sentence context as easily as ordinary words. Additional evidence supporting this view comes from an event related potentials (ERP) study by Ganushchak et al (2010a). Here a lexical decision task was used.…”

“…Finally, between 250 and 400 ms after the word onset, lexical access takes place, as indexed by the N400 component (Kutas and van Petten, 1994; Kutas and Federmeier, 2000). Ganushchak et al (2010a) found that ERP responses for SMS shortcuts did not differ from those of pseudo-shortcuts until about 270 ms after stimulus onset. However, shortcuts and pseudo-shortcuts significantly differed from each other in the N400 window, suggesting that shortcuts, but not pseudo-shortcuts, activate stored lexical representations.…”