Abstract
The Arabic alphabetical orthographic system has various unique features that include the existence of emphatic phonemic letters. These represent several pairs of letters that share a phonological similarity and use the same parts of the articulation system. The phonological and articulatory similarities between these letters lead to spelling errors where the subject tends to produce a pseudohomophone (PHw) instead of the correct word. Here, we investigated whether or not the unique orthographic features of the written Arabic words modulate early orthographic processes. For this purpose, we analyzed event-related potentials (ERPs) collected from adult skilled readers during an orthographic decision task on real words and their corresponding PHw. The subjects' reaction times (RTs) were faster in words than in PHw. ERPs analysis revealed significant response differences between words and the PHw starting during the N170 and extending to the P2 component, with no difference during processing steps devoted to phonological and lexico-semantic processing. Amplitude and latency differences were found also during the P6 component which peaked earlier for words and where source localization indicated the involvement of the classical left language areas. Our findings replicate some of the previous findings on PHw processing and extend them to involve early orthographical processes.
Highlights
Visual word recognition in alphabetic orthographies is thought as a multi-sequential process in which different sub-processes occur within determined time windows (McClelland and Rumelhart, 1981; Rumelhart and McClelland, 1982; Bentin et al, 1999; Dehaene et al, 2005; Martin et al, 2006)
The different models agree with the notion that the process of visual word recognition begins with processing the orthographic features of the written words
Our results replicate previous observations regarding the modulation of the late responses (P6 component) and extend them to emphasize the modulation of the early responses (N1P2 components) involved in orthographic processing steps
Summary
Visual word recognition in alphabetic orthographies is thought as a multi-sequential process in which different sub-processes occur within determined time windows (McClelland and Rumelhart, 1981; Rumelhart and McClelland, 1982; Bentin et al, 1999; Dehaene et al, 2005; Martin et al, 2006). The different models agree with the notion that the process of visual word recognition begins with processing the orthographic features of the written words In this regard, it is important mention that the extent to which the orthography of a given system reflects the phonology of its written words might vary between the different languages, depending on the regularity of the so called “grapheme-to-phoneme consistency” (e.g., Van Orden et al, 1990; Lukatela and Turvey, 1994a,b; Frost, 1998). Frost et al (1987) have observed that the lexical route has little impact in highly transparent orthographies like the Serbo-Croatian one, in contrast to English, where the lexical route is the dominant route for word recognition (Frost, 1998)
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