scholarly journals Predictive pre‐activation of orthographic and lexical‐semantic representations facilitates visual word recognition

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susanne Eisenhauer ◽  
Benjamin Gagl ◽  
Christian J. Fiebach
Keyword(s):  
Word Recognition ◽  
Visual Word Recognition ◽  
Visual Word ◽  
Semantic Representations ◽  
Lexical Semantic

scholarly journals Predictive pre-activation of orthographic and lexical-semantic representations facilitates visual word recognition

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susanne Eisenhauer ◽  
Benjamin Gagl ◽  
Christian J. Fiebach
Keyword(s):  
Word Recognition ◽  
Visual Word Recognition ◽  
Predictive Coding ◽  
Visual Word ◽  
Semantic Representations ◽  
Lexical Semantic ◽  
Brain Responses ◽  
Linguistic Representations ◽  
Context Dependent ◽  
Stimulus Features

AbstractTo a crucial extent, the efficiency of reading results from the fact that visual word recognition is faster in predictive contexts. Predictive coding models suggest that this facilitation results from pre-activation of predictable stimulus features across multiple representational levels before stimulus onset. Still, it is not sufficiently understood which aspects of the rich set of linguistic representations that are activated during reading – visual, orthographic, phonological, and/or lexical-semantic – contribute to context-dependent facilitation. To investigate in detail which linguistic representations are pre-activated in a predictive context and how they affect subsequent stimulus processing, we combined a well-controlled repetition priming paradigm, including words and pseudowords (i.e., pronounceable nonwords), with behavioral and magnetoencephalography measurements. For statistical analysis, we used linear mixed modeling, which we found had a higher statistical power compared to conventional multivariate pattern decoding analysis. Behavioral data from 49 participants indicate that word predictability (i.e., context present vs. absent) facilitated orthographic and lexical-semantic, but not visual or phonological processes. Magnetoencephalography data from 38 participants show sustained activation of orthographic and lexical-semantic representations in the interval before processing the predicted stimulus, suggesting selective pre-activation at multiple levels of linguistic representation as proposed by predictive coding. However, we found more robust lexical-semantic representations when processing predictable in contrast to unpredictable letter strings, and pre-activation effects mainly resembled brain responses elicited when processing the expected letter string. This finding suggests that pre-activation did not result in ‘explaining away’ predictable stimulus features, but rather in a ‘sharpening’ of brain responses involved in word processing.Impact StatementVisual word recognition is facilitated in predictive contexts. Predictive coding postulates that context-dependent facilitation involves the pre-activation of expected stimulus features, but it is not clear on which linguistic representations this mechanism relies during word recognition. Combining magnetoencephalography with high-powered linear mixed modeling, we show that context-dependent facilitation relies on pre-activation of orthographic and lexical-semantic representations in neuronal signals before actually perceiving an expected word.

Does Viotin Activate Violin More Than Viocin?

2014 ◽  
Vol 61 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-29 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manuel Perea ◽  
Victoria Panadero
Keyword(s):  
Word Recognition ◽  
Visual Word Recognition ◽  
Developmental Dyslexia ◽  
Computational Models ◽  
Error Rates ◽  
Visual Word ◽  
Base Word ◽  
Similar Response ◽  
Skilled Readers ◽  
Young Readers

The vast majority of neural and computational models of visual-word recognition assume that lexical access is achieved via the activation of abstract letter identities. Thus, a word’s overall shape should play no role in this process. In the present lexical decision experiment, we compared word-like pseudowords like viotín (same shape as its base word: violín) vs. viocín (different shape) in mature (college-aged skilled readers), immature (normally reading children), and immature/impaired (young readers with developmental dyslexia) word-recognition systems. Results revealed similar response times (and error rates) to consistent-shape and inconsistent-shape pseudowords for both adult skilled readers and normally reading children – this is consistent with current models of visual-word recognition. In contrast, young readers with developmental dyslexia made significantly more errors to viotín-like pseudowords than to viocín-like pseudowords. Thus, unlike normally reading children, young readers with developmental dyslexia are sensitive to a word’s visual cues, presumably because of poor letter representations.

The Sound of Enemies and Friends in the Neighborhood

2011 ◽  
Vol 58 (6) ◽  
pp. 454-463 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diane Pecher ◽  
Inge Boot ◽  
Saskia van Dantzig ◽  
Carol J. Madden ◽  
David E. Huber ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Word Recognition ◽  
Visual Word Recognition ◽  
Neighborhood Effects ◽  
Classification Performance ◽  
Visual Word ◽  
Orthographic Neighborhood ◽  
Semantic Classification ◽  
Semantic Class ◽  
Orthographic Neighbors ◽  
Target Words

Previous studies (e.g., Pecher, Zeelenberg, & Wagenmakers, 2005) found that semantic classification performance is better for target words with orthographic neighbors that are mostly from the same semantic class (e.g., living) compared to target words with orthographic neighbors that are mostly from the opposite semantic class (e.g., nonliving). In the present study we investigated the contribution of phonology to orthographic neighborhood effects by comparing effects of phonologically congruent orthographic neighbors (book-hook) to phonologically incongruent orthographic neighbors (sand-wand). The prior presentation of a semantically congruent word produced larger effects on subsequent animacy decisions when the previously presented word was a phonologically congruent neighbor than when it was a phonologically incongruent neighbor. In a second experiment, performance differences between target words with versus without semantically congruent orthographic neighbors were larger if the orthographic neighbors were also phonologically congruent. These results support models of visual word recognition that assume an important role for phonology in cascaded access to meaning.

Consonants and Vowels in Visual Word Recognition: An MEG Study

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicola Molinaro ◽  
Mikel Lizarazu ◽  
Jon Andoni Dunabeitia ◽  
Manuel Carreiras
Keyword(s):  
Word Recognition ◽  
Visual Word Recognition ◽  
Visual Word

Individual differences in visual word recognition: Insights from the ELP

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melvin J. Yap ◽  
David A. Balota ◽  
Daragh Sibley ◽  
Roger Ratcliff
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Word Recognition ◽  
Visual Word Recognition ◽  
Visual Word
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