Stages Of Visual Word Processing Research Articles

Age/Order of Acquisition influences at early stages of visual word processing: Evidence from homophonic formal priming in Spanish and English

Age/Order of Acquisition influences at early stages of visual word processing: Evidence from homophonic formal priming in Spanish and English

Level of Orthographic Knowledge Helps to Reveal Automatic Predictions in Visual Word Processing.

The brain generates predictions about visual word forms to support efficient reading. The “interactive account” suggests that the predictions in visual word processing can be strategic or automatic (non-strategic). Strategic predictions are frequently demonstrated in studies that manipulated task demands, however, few studies have investigated automatic predictions. Orthographic knowledge varies greatly among individuals and it offers a unique opportunity in revealing automatic predictions. The present study grouped the participants by level of orthographic knowledge and recorded EEGs in a non-linguistic color matching task. The visual word-selective N170 response was much stronger to pseudo than to real characters in participants with low orthographic knowledge, but not in those with high orthographic knowledge. Previous work on predictive coding has demonstrated that N170 is a good index for prediction errors, i.e., the mismatches between predictions and visual inputs. The present findings provide unambiguous evidence that automatic predictions modulate the early stage of visual word processing.

Lexico-semantic Activation of Translation Equivalents During the Attentional Blink.

The attentional blink (AB) refers to the impaired identification of the second target (T2) when presented within approximately 500ms after the first target (T1). Although the AB is eliminated when two targets can be integrated into a single compound word, it remains unclear whether the lexico-semantic organization of translation equivalents modulates the magnitude of the AB. In the present study, we examined consecutive targets' processing in a rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) paradigm using Chinese-English translation equivalents and non-translation equivalents. The results demonstrated that an overall presence of the AB effect was observed when T1 and T2 were non-translation equivalents. However, the AB effect disappeared completely when the two target words were translation equivalents. Taken together, these findings suggest that Chinese-English bilinguals are translating intentionally between Mandarin and English, which facilitates lexical access to word meaning from the two languages at the initial stages of visual word processing. Furthermore, such lexico-semantic activation of translation equivalents attributes to the elimination of the AB.

The time course of processing handwritten words: An ERP investigation

Behavioral studies have shown that the legibility of handwritten script hinders visual word recognition. Furthermore, when compared with printed words, lexical effects (e.g., word-frequency effect) are magnified for less intelligible (difficult) handwriting (Barnhart and Goldinger, 2010; Perea et al., 2016). This boost has been interpreted in terms of greater influence of top-down mechanisms during visual word recognition. In the present experiment, we registered the participants' ERPs to uncover top-down processing effects on early perceptual encoding. Participants' behavioral and EEG responses were recorded to high- and low-frequency words that varied in script's legibility (printed, easy handwritten, difficult handwritten) in a lexical decision experiment. Behavioral results replicated previous findings: word-frequency effects were larger in difficult handwriting than in easy handwritten or printed conditions. Critically, the ERP data showed an early effect of word-frequency in the N170 that was restricted to the difficult-to-read handwritten condition. These results are interpreted in terms of increased attentional deployment when the bottom-up signal is weak (difficult handwritten stimuli). This attentional boost would enhance top-down effects (e.g., lexical effects) in the early stages of visual word processing.

Morpheme Transposition of Two-Character Chinese Words in Vertical Visual Fields.

The present study explored the morpheme transposition process of two-character Chinese words in the upper and lower visual fields by adopting a dual-target rapid serial visual presentation paradigm. The results showed that the identification accuracy of canonical words was better in the lower visual field, whereas the accuracy of transposed words was almost identical in the upper and lower visual fields. Furthermore, there was no significant difference between canonical and transposed words at 0°, 2°, 4°, and 6° eccentricities in the upper visual field. However, the accuracy of canonical words was markedly higher than that of transposed words at 2°, 4°, and 6° eccentricities in the lower visual field. Finally, the character order errors mainly occurred at 0°eccentricity with a duration of 100ms in vertical visual fields. These findings, taken together, indicated that the character transposition affected the lexical process of two-character Chinese words in the lower visual field but not in the upper visual field, and the character order of words was more likely to be reversed at 0° eccentricity and the initial stage of visual word processing in vertical reading.

Early Brain Sensitivity to Word Frequency and Lexicality During Reading Aloud and Implicit Reading.

The present study investigated the influence of lexical word properties on the early stages of visual word processing (<250 ms) and how the dynamics of lexical access interact with task-driven top-down processes. We compared the brain’s electrical response (event-related potentials, ERPs) of 39 proficient adult readers for the effects of word frequency and word lexicality during an explicit reading task versus a visual immediate-repetition detection task where no linguistic intention is required. In general, we observed that left-lateralized processes linked to perceptual expertise for reading are task independent. Moreover, there was no hint of a word frequency effect in early ERPs, while there was a lexicality effect which was modulated by task demands: during implicit reading, we observed larger N1 negativity in the ERP to real words compared to pseudowords, but in contrast, this modulation by stimulus type was absent for the explicit reading aloud task (where words yielded the same activation as pseudowords). Thus, data indicate that the brain’s response to lexical properties of a word is open to influences from top-down processes according to the representations that are relevant for the task, and this occurs from the earliest stages of visual recognition (within ~200 ms). We conjectured that the loci of these early top-down influences identified for implicit reading are probably restricted to lower levels of processing (such as whole word orthography) rather than the process of lexical access itself.

Vernier But Not Grating Acuity Contributes to an Early Stage of Visual Word Processing.

The process of reading words depends heavily on efficient visual skills, including analyzing and decomposing basic visual features. Surprisingly, previous reading-related studies have almost exclusively focused on gross aspects of visual skills, while only very few have investigated the role of finer skills. The present study filled this gap and examined the relations of two finer visual skills measured by grating acuity (the ability to resolve periodic luminance variations across space) and Vernier acuity (the ability to detect/discriminate relative locations of features) to Chinese character-processing as measured by character form-matching and lexical decision tasks in skilled adult readers. The results showed that Vernier acuity was significantly correlated with performance in character form-matching but not visual symbol form-matching, while no correlation was found between grating acuity and character processing. Interestingly, we found no correlation of the two visual skills with lexical decision performance. These findings provide for the first time empirical evidence that the finer visual skills, particularly as reflected in Vernier acuity, may directly contribute to an early stage of hierarchical word processing.

Character Decomposition and Transposition Processes of Chinese Compound Words in Rapid Serial Visual Presentation.

Character order information is encoded at the initial stage of Chinese word processing, however, its time course remains underspecified. In this study, we assess the exact time course of the character decomposition and transposition processes of two-character Chinese compound words (canonical, transposed, or reversible words) compared with pseudowords using dual-target rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) of stimuli appearing at 30 ms per character with no inter-stimulus interval. The results indicate that Chinese readers can identify words with character transpositions in rapid succession; however, a transposition cost is involved in identifying transposed words compared to canonical words. In RSVP reading, character order of words is more likely to be reversed during the period from 30 to 180 ms for canonical and reversible words, but the period from 30 to 240 ms for transposed words. Taken together, the findings demonstrate that the holistic representation of the base word is activated, however, the order of the two constituent characters is not strictly processed during the very early stage of visual word processing.

Character Decomposition and Transposition of Chinese Compound Words in the Right and Left Visual Fields.

This study investigated the character decomposition and transposition processes of Chinese two-character compound words (canonical and transposed words) and pseudowords in the right and left visual fields using a dual-target rapid serial visual presentation paradigm. The results confirmed a right visual field superiority for canonical words, but this advantage vanished for transposed words. The findings further indicated that the same quality of lexical processing could be obtained from the foveal and parafoveal regions of the right and left visual fields, regardless of the character order, but not in the periphery of the right visual field. Moreover, the proportion of order reversals peaked at the central position and the shortest exposure time, but it declined with increasing eccentricity and time interval. We concluded that the character transposition of Chinese compound words was significantly sensitive in the periphery of the right visual field. Furthermore, the character order errors were mainly encoded in the foveal vision with a duration of 100 ms, which suggested that the order of the foveally presented Chinese characters was more likely to be reversed at the early stage of visual word processing.

Do Diacritical Marks Play a Role at the Early Stages of Word Recognition in Arabic?

A crucial question in the domain of visual word recognition is whether letter similarity plays a role in the early stages of visual word processing. Here we focused on Arabic because in this language there are various groups of letters that share the same basic shape and only differ in the number/location of diacritical points. We conducted a masked priming lexical decision experiment in which a target word was preceded by: (i) an identity prime; (ii) a prime in which the critical letter was replaced by a letter with the same shape that differed in the number of diacritics (e.g., ); or (iii) a prime in which the critical letter was replaced by a letter with different shape (e.g., ). Results showed a sizable advantage of the identity condition over the two substituted-letter priming conditions (i.e., diacritical information is rapidly processed). Thus, diacritical marks play an essential role in the “feature letter” level of models of visual word recognition in Arabic.

Early Visual Word Processing Is Flexible: Evidence from Spatiotemporal Brain Dynamics.

Visual word recognition is often described as automatic, but the functional locus of top-down effects is still a matter of debate. Do task demands modulate how information is retrieved, or only how it is used? We used EEG/MEG recordings to assess whether, when, and how task contexts modify early retrieval of specific psycholinguistic information in occipitotemporal cortex, an area likely to contribute to early stages of visual word processing. Using a parametric approach, we analyzed the spatiotemporal response patterns of occipitotemporal cortex for orthographic, lexical, and semantic variables in three psycholinguistic tasks: silent reading, lexical decision, and semantic decision. Task modulation of word frequency and imageability effects occurred simultaneously in ventral occipitotemporal regions-in the vicinity of the putative visual word form area-around 160 msec, following task effects on orthographic typicality around 100 msec. Frequency and typicality also produced task-independent effects in anterior temporal lobe regions after 200 msec. The early task modulation for several specific psycholinguistic variables indicates that occipitotemporal areas integrate perceptual input with prior knowledge in a task-dependent manner. Still, later task-independent effects in anterior temporal lobes suggest that word recognition eventually leads to retrieval of semantic information irrespective of task demands. We conclude that even a highly overlearned visual task like word recognition should be described as flexible rather than automatic.

The time course of contextual effects on visual word recognition.

Sentence comprehension depends on continuous prediction of upcoming words. However, when and how contextual information affects the bottom-up streams of visual word recognition is unknown. This study examined the effects of word frequency and contextual predictability (cloze probability of a target word embedded in the sentence) on N1, P200, and N400 components, which are related to various cognitive operations in early visual processing, perceptual decoding, and semantic processing. The data exhibited a significant interaction between predictability and frequency at the anterior N1 component. The predictability effect, in which the low predictability words elicited a more negative N1 than high predictability words, was only observed when reading a high frequency word. A significant predictability effect occurred during the P200 time window, in which the low predictability words elicited a less positive P200 than high predictability words. There is also a significant predictability effect on the N400 component; low predictability words elicited a greater N400 than high predictability words, although this effect did not interact with frequency. The temporal dynamics of the manner in which contextual information affects the visual word recognition is discussed. These findings support the interactive account, suggesting that contextual information facilitates visual-feature and orthographic processing in the early stage of visual word processing and semantic integration in the later stage.

Lexical access in early stages of visual word processing: A single-trial correlational MEG study of heteronym recognition

We present an MEG study of heteronym recognition, aiming to distinguish between two theories of lexical access: the ‘early access’ theory, which entails that lexical access occurs at early (pre 200 ms) stages of processing, and the ‘late access’ theory, which interprets this early activity as orthographic word-form identification rather than genuine lexical access. A correlational analysis method was employed to examine effects of the heteronyms’ form and lexical properties on brain activity. We find support for the ‘late access’ view, in that lexical properties did not affect processing until after 300 ms, while earlier activation was primarily modulated by orthographic form.

Attention Modulates Initial Stages of Visual Word Processing

Selective attention has the potential to enhance the initial processing of objects, their spatial locations, or their constituent features. The present study shows that this capacity to modulate initial stages of processing also applies to linguistic attributes. A cueing paradigm focused attention at different levels of word representations on a trial-by-trial basis to study the time course of attentional modulation on visual word processing by means of a high-density electrophysiology recording system. Attention to different linguistic attributes modulated components related to semantic, phonological, and orthographic stages of word processing. Crucially, the N200, associated with initial stages of orthographic decoding, was enhanced by attention to the letter pattern of words. These results suggest that top-down attention has the capacity to enhance initial perceptual stages of visual word processing and support the flexibility of attention in modulating different levels of information processing depending on task goals.

Cerebral Lateralization of Frontal Lobe Language Processes and Lateralization of the Posterior Visual Word Processing System

The brain areas involved in visual word processing rapidly become lateralized to the left cerebral hemisphere. It is often assumed this is because, in the vast majority of people, cortical structures underlying language production are lateralized to the left hemisphere. An alternative hypothesis, however, might be that the early stages of visual word processing are lateralized to the left hemisphere because of intrinsic hemispheric differences in processing low-level visual information as required for distinguishing fine-grained visual forms such as letters. If the alternative hypothesis was correct, we would expect posterior occipito-temporal processing stages still to be lateralized to the left hemisphere for participants with right hemisphere dominance for the frontal lobe processes involved in language production. By analyzing event-related potentials of native readers of French with either left hemisphere or right hemisphere dominance for language production (determined using a verb generation task), we were able to show that the posterior occipito-temporal areas involved in visual word processing are lateralized to the same hemisphere as language production. This finding could suggest top-down influences in the development of posterior visual word processing areas.

Task-dependent modulation of neglect dyslexia? Novel evidence from the viewing position effect

Spatial neglect may involve neglect dyslexia resulting in a failure to identify words or parts of words in the contralesional hemispace. The present study explored a well-documented dissociation in neglect dyslexics' word processing, i.e. impaired reading aloud in the presence of good lexical decision performance for the same stimuli. To investigate whether this dissociation is also reflected in the visuo-spatial characteristics of word processing, a well-established paradigm of word processing in normal readers ( technique of variable viewing positions, [Nazir, T., Heller, D., Sussmann, C., 1992. Letter visibility and word recognition: The optimal viewing position in printed words. Perception and Psychophysics, 52, 315–328]) was combined with a word naming and a lexical decision task. Compared to previous studies of neglect dyslexia, the present study additionally entailed tachistoscopical displays of word stimuli in different viewing positions. The word stimuli varied orthogonally along the two linguistic dimensions of word frequency (lexical manipulation) and syllable number (sublexical manipulation). Participants were sixteen patients with left-sided visual neglect and an age-matched control group. We expected the dissociation in neglect dyslexia to be reflected in task-specific effects in naming and lexical decision. This was partly confirmed by an interaction of task demands with viewing-position-specific results. Interestingly these results pointed to a task-dependency in word processing not only in neglect patients but also in normal readers, when equal error rates were experimentally obtained between control and neglect participants. Together with the finding of a task-specific effect of syllable number in the neglect group, the present results suggest that task demands modulate the degree of neglect dyslexia from early stages of visual word processing.

視覚言語刺激と発語による脳磁界反応の観察

Event-related magnetic fields (ERFs) were recorded in seven subjects when they were presented with a rectangle and Japanese Kanji characters, followed by vocalizations. The ERF averages for the Kanji characters were different from those for the rectangle at latencies of about 100ms over the occipital lobe and 150-500ms over the temporo-parieto-occipital region. This observation suggests that the first stage of visual word processing might arise in the occipital lobe.In some cases, difference between the ERFs for the Kanji characters and those for the rectangle were also seen in the frontal lobe at latencies greater than 250ms. This observation suggests that frontal lobe activity may be also involved in visual word processing.Three equivalent current dipoles were estimated on the bilateral precentral gyrus (motor area) and the posterior part of the superior frontal gyros (supplementary motor area) at a latency of about 500ms during vocalization.In some cases, early responses at latencies of less than 150ms were obtained in not only the occipital lobe but also the frontal and temporal lobes. This suggests that parallel processing might occur during visual word processing.