Word shape's in poor shape for the race to the lexicon.

Paap, Kenneth R.; Newsome, Sandra L.; Noel, Ronald W.

doi:10.1037/0096-1523.10.3.413

Cited by 103 publications

(130 citation statements)

References 18 publications

(24 reference statements)

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“…Furthermore, the bias for the upper part of words was not limited to the upper part of lowercase words; it also occurred, albeit to a lesser degree, for uppercase words (see also Perea et al, 2012, for a similar pattern of data in masked priming). Thus, on the basis of the present results, we can discard the possibility that word shape is responsible for the bias for the upper part of words (for further evidence against the "whole-word shape" hypothesis, see also Paap, Newsome, & Noel, 1984;Pelli, Farell, & Moore, 2003;Perea & Rosa, 2002).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 60%

Does the advantage of the upper part of words occur at the lexical level?

2012

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Several recent studies have shown that the upper part of words is more important than the lower part in visual word recognition. Here, we examine whether or not this advantage arises at the lexical or at the letter (letter feature) level. To examine this issue, we conducted two lexical decision experiments in which words/pseudowords were preceded by a very brief (50-ms) presentation of their upper or lower parts (e.g.,). If the advantage for the upper part of words arises at the letter (letter feature) level, the effect should occur for both words and pseudowords. Results revealed an advantage for the upper part of words, but not for pseudowords. This suggests that the advantage for the upper part of words occurs at the lexical level, rather than at the letter (or letter feature) level.Keywords Visual word identification . Lexical decision . Computational modelsThe front end of any computational model of visual word recognition has to specify in detail not only the word level, but also the letter and letter feature levels. For the sake of parsimony, current implementations of these models assume that each letter feature is equally important in activating letter representations-usually employing the simplified uppercase font designed by Rumelhart and Siple (1974; see, e.g.,

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 60%

Does the advantage of the upper part of words occur at the lexical level?

2012

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“…We are able to recognize words across considerable changes in font, CASE, location , and size. Even highly unfamiliar word forms, such as mIxEd CaSe, do not pose much difficulty for our visual system (Besner, 1989;Mayall et al, 1997;Paap et al, 1984). This implies that the visual word recognition process is highly efficient in ''normalizing'' and computing an invariant representation that discards irrelevant variations in the visual input.…”

Section: Theoretical Issues In Visual Word Recognitionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Specialization within the ventral stream: the case for the visual word form area

2004

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Is there specialization for visual word recognition within the visual ventral stream of literate human adults? We review the evidence for a specialized ''visual word form area'' and critically examine some of the arguments recently placed against this hypothesis. Three distinct forms of specialization must be distinguished: functional specialization, reproducible localization, and regional selectivity. Examination of the literature with this theoretical division in mind indicates that reading activates a precise subpart of the left ventral occipitotemporal sulcus, and that patients with pure alexia consistently exhibit lesions of this region (reproducible localization). Second, this region implements processes adequate for reading in a specific script, such as invariance across upper-and lower-case letters, and its lesion results in the selective loss of reading-specific processes (functional specialization). Third, the issue of regional selectivity, namely, the existence of putative cortical patches dedicated to letter and word recognition, cannot be resolved by positron emission tomography or lesion data, but requires high-resolution neuroimaging techniques. The available evidence from single-subject fMRI and intracranial recordings suggests that some cortical sites respond preferentially to letter strings than to other categories of visual stimuli such as faces or objects, though the preference is often relative rather than absolute. We conclude that learning to read results in the progressive development of an inferotemporal region increasingly responsive to visual words, which is aptly named the visual word form area (VWFA).

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“…For instance, the number of possible patterns from which each letter must be recognized is doubled when a pure case condition is switched to mIxEd cAsE (Paap, Newsome, & Noel, 1984). More important, case alternation may also alter the normal mode for lexical access (Forster & Guess, 1996;Mayall & Humphreys, 1996;Mayall, Humphreys, & Olson, 1997;Paap et al, 1984). In Experiment 2, we manipulate the case of the letters: Items are presented either in lowercase or in UPPERCASE.…”

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confidence: 99%