Perceptual constraints on word recognition

What does WEIRD stand for

• W = Western

• E = Educated

• I = Industrialised

• R = Rich

• D = Democratic

Language research overly focused on which language

on English

• without taking account of diversity in world languages

Where does light pass through in the eye

through the cornea

What happens after light passes through the cornea

it is focused by the lens as an inverted image on the retina

What is the retina composed of

photoreceptor cells (rods and cones)

Where is vision the sharpest in the eye

within the fovea

What did Antis (1974) state about the retinal acuity

it declines with increasing distance from the centre of the fovea

• letters at locations further from the point of fixation need to be larger if they are to be recognised as easily

What are the 2 consequences for reading

1. readers perceive only a small amount of high quality information on each fixation, so read by making series of fixations

2. readers tend to fixate a preferred viewing location between the beginning and middle letters (Rayner, 1979)

What did O’Regan (1981) argue about readers and information

that readers maximise information acquired from words

What can maximise the number of letters seen in high acuity

fixating word centre

What do the studies in English and French state about how words are recognised most efficiently

the studies in English and French show that words are recognised most efficiently (fewer errors and faster responses) when fixated at left of centre

The most efficient location for recognising words (left of centre) is described as

the optimal viewing position (OVP)

Why is the ‘optimal viewing position’ (OVP) to the left of word centre

might reflect informativeness of word parts

Which letters of English and French words tend to be most informative

the beginning letters

• readers might fixate this region to optimise word recognition (O’Regan, 1981)

Which letters of Arabic and Hebrew words tend to be most informative

the most informative letters are spread throughout the word

Arabic words are recognised most efficiently when fixated at

their centre

What do studies use to view where the reader is fixating

use gaze-contingent moving window paradigm

• a chunk of text is shown normally around fixation, while text outside of this area is replaced by Xs

  • systematically varying the size of this area can reveal how much information is acquired on each fixation

Young adults read English normally when about how many letters of fixation to the left and right

• 4-5 letters to left of fixation

• 14-15 letters to right of fixation

Is perceptual span asymmetric or symmetric

is it asymmetric

• in English it is elongated to the right

Perceptual span is smaller and more symmetrical for…

• beginning readers

• readers with dyslexia

• older readers

In Arabic and Hebrew the perpetual span is skewed to…

to the left

In Japanese or Mongolian the perceptual span is skewed to…

vertically

How is the visual field divided

into right and left hemifields (LVF and RVF) in each eye

To where does the Left Visual Field project to

projects to the right hemisphere (RH)

To where does the Right Visual Field project to

projects to the left hemisphere (LH)

How are both hemispheres recombined

by inter-hemispheric transfer

• via corpus callosum

When words are recognised between hemispheres which visual field is more superior for right handers

the RVF

• better recognition in LH

What is the split-fovea theory

claims hemispheric division up to the point of fixation

Describe how words are read

fixated words split into two:

• one half projects to RH

• other half protects to LH

  • parts then recombine via intra-hemispheric connections (via corpus callosum)

What did the argument say about fixation position and letter projection to the right hemisphere (RH)

readers minimise the number of letters projected to the right hemisphere by fixating slightly left of the word’s centre

Words close to fixation in LVF and RVF should be recognised… (Jordan & Paterson, 2009)

equally efficiently

What happens when fixated words are projected to both hemispheres

fixated words project as a whole

What sis Lavidor et al., (2001) argued about the split-fovea processing

split-fovea processing predicts larger effects when more word information to left than right of fixation

Jordan et al., used eye-tracker to ensure accurate fixation, what did they find

they failed to replicate

Since people don’t report diplopia (double vision) what is believed

that both two eyes fixate same location in words

• but they do fixate about 1-2 characters apart