Masked priming effects are modulated by expertise in the script

Abstract

In a recent study using a masked priming same-different matching task, Garcı´a-Orza, Perea, and Munoz (2010) found a transposition priming effect for letter strings, digit strings, and symbol strings, but not for strings of pseudoletters (i.e., EPRI-ERPI produced similar response times to the control pair EDBI-ERPI). They argued that the mechanism responsible for position coding in masked priming is not operative with those "objects" whose identity cannot be attained rapidly. To assess this hypothesis, Experiment 1 examined masked priming effects in Arabic for native speakers of Arabic, whereas participants in Experiments 2 and 3 were lower intermediate learners of Arabic and readers with no knowledge of Arabic, respectively. Results showed a masked priming effect only for readers who are familiar with the Arabic script. Furthermore, transposed-letter priming in native speakers of Arabic only occurred when the order of the root letters was kept intact. In Experiments 3-7, we examined why masked repetition priming is absent for readers who are unfamiliar with the Arabic script. We discuss the implications of these findings for models of visual-word recognition.

Transposition effects in reading Japanese Kana: Are they orthographic in nature?

“…3 Thus, the present data suggest that the stage of letter/mora position coding is-to some degree-language independent. We acknowledge, however, that factors such as visual format (as Korean Hangul; see Lee & Taft, 2009) or the morphological characteristics of a given language (e.g., the ordering of the root letters in Semitic languages; Velan & Frost, 2009; see also Perea, Abu Mallouh, García-Orza & Carreiras, 2010) may influence the process of letter position coding.…”

Facilitation versus Inhibition in the Masked Priming Same–Different Matching Task

“…First, the above-cited strategy would predict a robust repetition priming effect with visible, unmasked primes even under a zero-contingency scenario (i.e., if the three items are the same, press "same"); however, Kinoshita and Norris (2010) failed to find a significant repetition priming effect under those conditions, which rules out the above-cited strategy. Second, leaving aside that masked priming effects can be obtained when the prime stimuli are not even detected (e.g., see Dehaene et al, 2001), and that primes may not be processed as separate objects from the target (Norris & Kinoshita, 2008), masked repetition priming effects with the same -different task are negligible when the participants are presented with stimuli in an unfamiliar script (e.g., Arabic for nonspeakers of Arabic; no faster than see Perea et al, 2011): If participants were merely detecting whether the sequence of the three stimuli is the same or not, one would have expected a robust masked priming effect under these conditions. 3…”

Non-cognate translation priming effects in the same–different task: evidence for the impact of “higher level” information

“…Perea, Abu Mallouh, García-Orza, and Carreiras (2011), for example, found a morphological effect in this task in Arabic. In particular, they found that the advantage for a transposed-letter priming condition in comparison to a replacement-letter priming condition only arose when the order of the (morphological) root letters was kept intact and not when two root letters had been transposed.…”