Orthographic Priming Effects Research Articles

Do visible semantic primes preactivate lexical representations?

Considerable research effort has been devoted to investigating semantic priming effects, particularly, the locus of those effects. Semantically related primes might activate their target's lexical representation (through automatic spreading activation at short stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs), or through generation of words expected to follow the prime at longer SOAs). Alternately, semantically related primes might aid responding after target identification (i.e., postlexically). In contrast, masked orthographic priming effects appear to be lexical and automatic. Lexical processing of targets is facilitated by orthographically similar nonword primes and often inhibited by orthographically similar word primes (Davis & Lupker, 2006). Using the lexical-decision task (LDT), we found additivity between the facilitative effects of visible semantic primes and the facilitative effects of masked orthographically similar nonword primes at long and short SOAs, consistent with a postlexical locus of the semantic priming effects. Also consistent with this conclusion, semantic primes affected the skew of the distribution (larger effects on longer latency trials), whereas masked orthographic primes did not. In a final experiment, visible primes that were semantically related to the masked orthographic word primes did not make those primes more effective lexical inhibitors of orthographically similar targets (independent of SOA). Taken together, our findings suggest that the impact of a semantic prime is not to increase the lexical activation of related concepts. Rather, they suggest that the locus of semantic priming effects in LDTs is postlexical, in that discovering the existence of a relationship between the prime and target biases participants to make a "word" response. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

The origins of backward priming effects in logographic scripts for four-character words

Abstract Yang, Chen, Spinelli, and Lupker (2019) reported a large masked priming effect in a Chinese lexical-decision task using prime-target pairs in which the primes were presented in a backward (right-to-left) orientation (e.g., 说来的总-总的来说) (a “backward” priming effect). The question addressed here is whether this effect is truly an orthographic priming effect or is, to some degree, morphologically/meaning- or syllabic/phonologically-based. Five experiments, two involving phonologically-related primes and three involving meaning-related primes, produced no evidence that either of those factors contributed to the backward priming effect, implying that it truly is an orthographic effect. As backward priming effects do not emerge in English, these results suggest that the orthographic coding process is quite different for Chinese versus English readers. Specifically, they support the conclusion that the orthographic coding process for Chinese readers codes character positions in a quite flexible fashion. Issues concerning the generalizability of current models of orthographic coding in alphabetic languages, as well as implications for models of Chinese word recognition, are discussed.

二语词汇识别过程中的正字法邻近词效应研究

二语词汇识别过程中的正字法邻近词效应研究

Native speakers like affixes, L2 speakers like letters? An overt visual priming study investigating the role of orthography in L2 morphological processing.

In an overt visual priming experiment, we investigate the role of orthography in native (L1) and non-native (L2) processing of German morphologically complex words. We compare priming effects for inflected and derived morphologically related prime-target pairs versus otherwise matched, purely orthographically related pairs. The results show morphological priming effects in both the L1 and L2 group, with no significant difference between inflection and derivation. However, L2 speakers, but not L1 speakers, also showed significant priming for orthographically related pairs. Our results support the claim that L2 speakers focus more on surface-level information such as orthography during visual word recognition. This can cause orthographic priming effects in morphologically related prime-target pairs, which may conceal L1-L2 differences in morphological processing.

The impact of text orientation on form priming effects in four-character Chinese words.

Does visuospatial orientation influence repetition and transposed character (TC) priming effects in logographic scripts? According to perceptual learning accounts, the nature of orthographic (form) priming effects should be influenced by text orientation (Dehaene, Cohen, Sigman, & Vinckier, 2005; Grainger & Holcomb, 2009). In contrast, Witzel, Qiao, and Forster's (2011) abstract letter unit account argues that the mechanism responsible for such effects acts at a totally abstract orthographic level (i.e., the visuospatial orientation is irrelevant to the nature of the relevant orthographic code). The present experiments expanded this debate beyond alphabetic scripts and the syllabic Kana script used by Witzel et al. to a logographic script (Chinese). Experiment 1 showed masked repetition and TC priming effects with primes and targets presented in both the conventional left-to-right horizontal orientation and the vertical top-to-bottom orientation, replicating Witzel et al. Experiment 2 showed masked repetition and TC priming effects even when both the primes and targets were presented in the right-to-left orientation, a rare but existent text orientation in Chinese. In Experiment 3, the primes, but not the targets, were presented in the right-to-left orientation. Priming effects were again obtained regardless of the fact that the primes and targets appeared in different orientations. Experiment 4, which involved primes and targets presented in a completely novel bottom-to-top orientation, also produced a TC priming effect. These results support abstract letter/character unit accounts of form priming effects while failing to support perceptual learning accounts. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Orthographic and Morphological Masked Priming Effects in Arabic: Evidence from Lexical Decision Task in Children with and Without Dyslexia

In this study, we conducted a lexical decision test using masked priming paradigm to examine the morphological and orthographic priming effects in word recognition. Morphologically related word pairs can be derivational, sharing the same root or not (pseudo derivational). However, the orthographically related pairs share the same letters in different positions. Two groups of native Arabic-speaking children (N = 57) from grade 4 and 5 participated in this study: typical readers (n = 39) and dyslexic readers (n = 18). To examine whether a potential morphological priming effect is driven by semantic or orthographic properties of shared morphemes, we compared prime-target pairs with derivation morphology and pseudo-derivation word related pairs. Between groups comparisons showed that a priming effect occurred only in typical readers. Comparisons between conditions revealed that a priming effect only occurred for accuracy in derivational morphology. No priming effect occurred in reaction times (RTs) between groups or conditions. These results provide evidence for root-based word recognition in Arabic children and give support to semantically rather than orthographically driven lexical access.

The sandwich priming paradigm does not reduce lexical competitor effects.

We investigated the mechanisms underlying sandwich priming, a procedure in which a brief preprime target presentation precedes the conventional mask-prime-target sequence, used to study orthographic similarity. Lupker and Davis (2009) showed the sandwich paradigm enhances orthographic priming effects: With primes moderately related to targets, sandwich priming produced significant facilitation, but conventional priming did not. They argued that unlike conventional priming, sandwich priming is not susceptible to an uncontrolled counteractive inhibitory process, lexical competition, that cancels out moderate facilitation effects. They suggest lexical competition is eliminated by preactivating the target's representation, privileging the target over similar lexical units (competitors). As such, it better measures orthographic relatedness between primes and targets, a key purpose of many priming studies. We tested whether elimination of lexical competition could indeed account for the observed orthographic priming boost with sandwich priming. In three lexical decision experiments and accompanying simulations with a competitive network model, we compared priming effects in three preprime procedures: no preprime (conventional), identity (target) preprime (sandwich), and competitor preprime (included to exacerbate lexical competition). The related prime conditions consisted of replaced-letters, shared neighbor (one-letter-different from both competitor preprime and target), and transposed-all-letter nonword primes. Contrary to the model's predictions, the competitor preprime did not attenuate (Experiment 1) or even reverse the priming effect (Experiment 2). Moreover, the competitor enabled facilitatory priming that was absent with no preprime (Experiment 3). These data suggested that the sandwich orthographic boost could not be attributed to reduced lexical competition but rather to prelexical processes in word recognition. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

ERPs Reveal Relationships Between Neural Orthographic Priming Effects and Reading Skill

Abstract. Masked priming has long been used to demonstrate the impact of brief presentations of orthographically related stimuli on visual word recognition. The aim of the present study was to examine neural correlates of orthographic priming produced by pronounceable and unpronounceable anagram primes. Crucially, we examined relationships between these priming effects and individual differences on a battery of measures assessing orthographic processing ability, current reading ability, and verbal intelligence in university students. Our study demonstrated group-level priming effects on the N200 and N400, with both components being primarily modulated by unpronounceable, orthographically illegal primes. Relationships between the extent of priming as indexed by N200 amplitude and speed of orthographic processing emerged, as reaction time (RT) on an orthographic choice task was associated with priming effects. Priming effects on N400 amplitude were related to phonological decoding efficiency. Those individuals with less efficient orthographic or phonological processing were more sensitive to the orthographic relationship between primes and targets. These findings demonstrate that university students vary in their sensitivity to orthographic priming and the degree to which orthographic information is used during word recognition.

Does visual letter similarity modulate masked form priming in young readers of Arabic?

We carried out a masked priming lexical decision experiment to study whether visual letter similarity plays a role during the initial phases of word processing in young readers of Arabic (fifth graders). Arabic is ideally suited to test these effects because most Arabic letters share their basic shape with at least one other letter and differ only in the number/position of diacritical points (e.g., ض - ص ;ظ - ط ;غ - ع ;ث - ت - ن ب ;ذ - د ;خ - ح - ج ;ق - ف ;ش - س ;ز - ر). We created two one-letter-different priming conditions for each target word, in which a letter from the consonantal root was substituted by another letter that did or did not keep the same shape (e.g., خدمة - حدمة vs. خدمة - فدمة). Another goal of the current experiment was to test the presence of masked orthographic priming effects, which are thought to be unreliable in Semitic languages. To that end, we included an unrelated priming condition. We found a sizable masked orthographic priming effect relative to the unrelated condition regardless of visual letter similarity, thereby revealing that young readers are able to quickly process the diacritical points of Arabic letters. Furthermore, the presence of masked orthographic priming effects in Arabic suggests that the word identification stream in Indo-European and Semitic languages is more similar than previously thought.

Time course analyses of orthographic and phonological priming effects in developing readers.

It has been assumed that fluent reading requires efficient integration of orthographic and phonological codes. However, it is thus far unclear how this integration process develops when children learn to become fluent readers. Therefore, we used masked priming to investigate time courses of orthographic and phonological code activation in children at incremental levels of reading development (second, fourth and sixth grade). The first study used targets with small phonological differences between phonological and orthographic primes, which are typical in transparent orthographies. The second study manipulated the strength of the phonological difference between prime and target to clarify whether phonological difference influences phonological priming effects. Results in both studies showed that orthographic priming effects became facilitative at increasingly short durations during reading development, but phonological priming was absent. These results are taken to suggest that development of reading fluency is accompanied by increased automatization of orthographic representations. The absence of phonological priming suggests that developing readers cannot yet activate phonological codes automatically.

Spatiotemporal reorganization of the reading network in adult dyslexia

Developmental dyslexia is characterized by impairments in reading fluency and spelling that persist into adulthood. Here, we hypothesized that high-achieving adult dyslexics (i.e., university students with a history of dyslexia) manage to cope with these deficits by relying to a greater extent on morphological information than do non-impaired adult readers. We used magnetoencephalography (MEG) in a primed lexical decision task, in which we contrasted orthographic, morphological and semantic processing. Behavioral results confirmed that adult dyslexics did indeed rely to a greater extent on the semantic properties of morphemes than controls. In line with this, MEG results showed early morphological effects (100–200 msec) in a frontal network, which reflected the contribution of semantic processing. The same effects occurred much later in controls (∼400 msec). In contrast, controls showed early orthographic priming effects in posterior left inferior temporal gyrus (LITG) at around 130 msec, which were not seen in dyslexics. In the LITG, dyslexics showed only late activation of semantic and orthographic information. The present results suggest a spatiotemporal reorganization of the reading network, in which morphological information located in frontal regions is activated earlier in high-achieving adults dyslexics than controls.

Automatic activation of phonological code during visual word recognition in children: a masked priming study in grades 3 and 5

The present study aimed to investigate the development of automatic phonological processes involved in visual word recognition during reading acquisition in French. A visual masked priming lexical decision experiment was carried out with third, fifth graders and adult skilled readers. Three different types of partial overlap between the prime and the target were contrasted: orthographic and phonological overlap (O+P+; ren-RENDRE [give] pronounced /ʀɑ/-/ʀɑdʀ/ respectively), orthographic overlap (O+P−; re-RENDRE pronounced /ʀə/-/ʀɑdʀ/ respectively), or without orthographic and phonological overlap with the beginning of the target, namely unrelated (UR; pi-RENDRE pronounced /pi/-/ʀɑdʀ/, respectively). The number of letters was controlled throughout the priming conditions. The results showed an interaction between grade and priming condition in children. In third graders, the results displayed a masked phonological priming effect (the O+P+ condition was compared to the O+P− condition) but not a masked orthographic priming effect (the O+P− condition was compared to the UR condition). On the contrary, in fifth graders, the results showed a masked orthographic priming effect but not a masked phonological priming effect. Adult skilled readers displayed the same pattern as fifth graders. These results are interpreted in the multiple-route model of reading development.

L1 and L2 processing of compound words: Evidence from masked priming experiments in English

This study reports results from a series of masked priming experiments investigating early automatic processes involved in the visual recognition of English bimorphemic compounds in native and non-native processing. Results show that NSs produced robust and statistically equivalent masked priming effects with semantically transparent (e.g., toothbrush-TOOTH) and opaque (e.g., honeymoon-HONEY) compound primes, but no priming with orthographic controls (e.g., restaurant-REST), irrespective of constituent position. Similarly, advanced Chinese learners of English also produced robust and statistically equivalent priming effects with transparent and opaque compound primes in both positions. However, a clear orthographic priming effect was observed in theword-initialoverlap position but no such effect in theword-finalposition. We argue that L2 compound priming originates from a different source from form priming. We conclude that these findings lend support to the sublexical morpho-orthographic decomposition mechanism underlying early English compound recognition not only in L1 but also in L2 processing.

Time course analyses of orthographic and phonological priming effects during word recognition in a transparent orthography

In opaque orthographies, the activation of orthographic and phonological codes follows distinct time courses during visual word recognition. However, it is unclear how orthography and phonology are accessed in more transparent orthographies. Therefore, we conducted time course analyses of masked priming effects in the transparent Dutch orthography. The first study used targets with small phonological differences between phonological and orthographic primes, which are typical in transparent orthographies. Results showed consistent orthographic priming effects, yet phonological priming effects were absent. The second study explicitly manipulated the strength of the phonological difference and revealed that both orthographic and phonological priming effects became identifiable when phonological differences were strong enough. This suggests that, similar to opaque orthographies, strong phonological differences are a prerequisite to separate orthographic and phonological priming effects in transparent orthographies. Orthographic and phonological priming appeared to follow distinct time courses, with orthographic codes being quickly translated into phonological codes and phonology dominating the remainder of the lexical access phase.

Orthographic priming also depends on the emotional valence of the neighbor and prime duration: An ERP study

Abstract Event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were recorded in two experiments to examine whether the time course of the orthographic priming effect depends on the emotional valence of the orthographic neighbor and on prime duration. Neutral target words ( e.g. , GICLER [squirt] , TINTER [ring] ) had only one higher-frequency orthographic neighbor. This orthographic neighbor was negative for half of the targets ( e.g. , gifler [slap] ) and neutral for the other half ( e.g. , tenter [tempt] ). Target words were presented in a primed lexical decision task, preceded either by their orthographic neighbor or by a non-alphabetic control prime. Two prime durations of 66 ms (Experiment 1) and 166 ms (Experiment 2) were used. In Experiment 1, results showed an orthographic priming effect on three ERP components (P150, N200 and N400) that was modulated by the negative emotional valence of orthographic neighbors. In Experiment 2, the same components were influenced by the orthographic priming effect, although their appearance latency was brought forward and their amplitude increased. However, the emotional valence of the neighbor no longer influenced the time course of the orthographic priming effect. The results are discussed in terms of early activation of the emotional content of the orthographic neighbor during word processing.

Pseudohomophone priming in lexical decision is not fragile in a sparse lexical neighborhood.

In lexical decision, to date few studies in English have found a reliable pseudohomophone priming advantage with orthographically similar primes (the klip-plip effect; Frost, Ahissar, Gotesman, & Tayeb, 2003; see Rastle & Brysbaert, 2006, for a review). On the basis of the Bayseian reader model of lexical decision (Norris, 2006, 2009), we hypothesized that this was because in previous studies, lexical decisions could have been made without finding a match between the input and a unique lexical representation. Consistent with our hypothesis, we found that words from dense neighborhoods showed neither an orthographic form priming effect nor a pseudohomophone priming advantage; in contrast, with words from a sparse lexical neighborhood, a sizeable orthographic form priming effect was found, and a robust pseudohomophone priming advantage, which was not limited to the overlap of onset phoneme, was also observed. Identity primes produced greater facilitation than pseudohomophone primes. We consider the implication of these findings for the role of assembled phonology in lexical access.

When less is more: Feedback, priming, and the pseudoword superiority effect

The present study combined masked priming with electrophysiological recordings to investigate orthographic priming effects with nonword targets. Targets were pronounceable nonwords (e.g., STRENG) or consonant strings (e.g., STRBNG), that both differed from a real word by a single letter substitution (STRONG). Targets were preceded by related primes that could be the same as the target (e.g., streng–STRENG, strbng–STRBNG) or the real word neighbor of the target (e.g., strong–STRENG, strong–STRBNG). Independently of priming, pronounceable nonwords were associated with larger negativities than consonant strings, starting at 290 ms post-target onset. Overall, priming effects were stronger and longer-lasting with pronounceable nonwords than consonant strings. However, consonant string targets showed an early effect of word neighbor priming in the absence of an effect of repetition priming, whereas pronounceable nonwords showed both repetition and word neighbor priming effects in the same time window. This pattern of priming effects is taken as evidence for feedback from whole-word orthographic representations activated by the prime stimulus that influences bottom-up processing of prelexical representations during target processing.

Basic processes in reading: Spatial attention as a necessary preliminary to orthographic and semantic processing

The question of whether words can be identified without spatial attention has been a topic of considerable interest over the last five and a half decades, but the literature has yielded mixed conclusions. The present experiments manipulated the proportion of valid trials (the proportion of trials in which a cue appeared in the same location as the upcoming target word) so as to encourage distributed (50% valid cues; Experiments 1 and 3) or focused (100% valid cues; Experiments 2 and 4) spatial attention in a priming-type paradigm. Participants read aloud a target word, and the impact of a simultaneously presented distractor word was assessed. Semantic and orthographic priming effects were present when conditions promoted distributed spatial attention but absent when conditions promoted focused spatial attention. In contrast, Experiment 5 yielded a distractor word effect in the 100% valid cue condition when subjects identified a colour (Stroop task). We take these results to suggest that (1) spatial attention is a necessary preliminary to visual word recognition and (2) examining the role of spatial attention in the context of the Stroop task may have few implications for basic processes in reading because colour processing makes fewer demands on spatial attention than does visual word recognition.

L’amorçage orthographique masqué dans la reconnaissance des mots écrits: Données empiriques et perspectives théoriques.

The present paper reviews the main studies that have been conducted on the effects of masked orthographic priming in written word recognition. Empirical data accumulated over the last two decades are exposed by considering three factors that play a role in the effects of orthographic priming: prime lexicality, prime duration, and target and/or prime orthographic neighbourhood. The theoretical implications of these data are discussed in light of the two major frameworks of visual word recognition, the serial search and the interactive activation. As a whole, the interactive activation hypothesis seems to be more appropriate to account for the empirical data.

When beef primes reef more than leaf: Orthographic information affects phonological priming in spoken word recognition

This study was designed to investigate orthographic effects on spoken word recognition by combining the priming paradigm with a measure of event-related brain potentials (ERPs). Primes and targets either shared both orthography and phonology of the rhyme (beef-reef) or they shared rhyme phonology only (leaf-reef). The two "related" conditions were compared against an "unrelated" condition (sick-reef). The results revealed a significant orthographic priming effect that was present on the early part of the N400 and that occurred as early as the phonological priming effect itself. Importantly, phonological and orthographic priming effects had different topographic distributions: The phonological priming effect was localized over centro-posterior regions, whereas the orthographic priming effect was more anterior. These results support a theory according to which orthographic information is coactivated online in spoken word recognition.