Abstract
It has been hypothesized that efficient reading is possible because all reading scripts have been matched, through cultural evolution, to the natural capabilities of the visual cortex. This matching has resulted in all scripts being made of line-junctions, such as T, X, or L. Our aim was to test a critical prediction of this hypothesis: visual reading in an atypical script that is devoid of line-junctions (such as the Braille alphabet read visually) should be much less efficient than reading in a “normal” script (e.g., Cyrillic). Using a lexical decision task, we examined Visual Braille reading speed and efficiency in sighted Braille teachers. As a control, we tested learners of a natural visual script, Cyrillic. Both groups participated in a two semester course of either visual Braille or Russian while their reading speed and accuracy was tested at regular intervals. The results show that visual Braille reading is slow, prone to errors and highly serial, even in Braille readers with years of prior reading experience. Although subjects showed some improvements in their visual Braille reading accuracy and speed following the course, the effect of word length on reading speed (typically observed in beginning readers) was remained very sizeable through all testing sessions. These results are in stark contrast to Cyrillic, a natural script, where only 3 months of learning were sufficient to achieve relative proficiency. Taken together, these results suggest that visual features such as line junctions and their combinations might be necessary for efficient reading.
Highlights
Braille is a tactile alphabet devised by Braille (1829) that has become a standard alphabet for the blind
We found a correlation between the speed of reading in the native alphabet and reaction time (RT) for Braille reading in the final testing session, meaning that fast regular readers were fast visual Braille readers
We studied visual reading in Braille and in a typical visual script – Cyrillic
Summary
Braille is a tactile alphabet devised by Braille (1829) that has become a standard alphabet for the blind. While visual Braille reading has received little attention, it is potentially important for our understanding of visual perception, since learning to read in this script could cause specific challenges This is because Braille is composed exclusively of dots, which is in stark contrast to all other ‘natural’ scripts. They might seem to be very diverse, Universal Visual Features in Reading they are made of similar components such as lines, curves and vertices. Frequency distribution of these components matches the visual characteristics of natural scenes that humans encounter in everyday life (Changizi and Shimojo, 2005; Changizi et al, 2006). This suggests that there are some specific, universal features underlying the shape of human visual signs
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