0000000001116092
AUTHOR
Ana Marcet
showing 31 related works from this author
Buscando las claves de la lectura en personas sordas
2016
En este trabajo examinamos los procesos de reconocimiento visual de palabras en una población que muestra generalmente un bajo nivel lector: las personas sordas prelocutivas. Si bien investigaciones recientes han mostrado que las personas sordas hacen uso efectivo de la información proveniente de la forma visual de las palabras, no lo hacen de su sonido. Por tanto, en la intervención educativa, sería conveniente que los profesionales que trabajaran con personas sordas emplearan procedimientos que les permitieran desarrollar una correspondencia más estable entre las letras y sus sonidos.
On the nature of consonant/vowel differences in letter position coding: Evidence from developing and adult readers
2016
In skilled adult readers, transposed-letter effects (jugde-JUDGE) are greater for consonant than for vowel transpositions. These differences are often attributed to phonological rather than orthographic processing. To examine this issue, we employed a scenario in which phonological involvement varies as a function of reading experience: a masked priming lexical decision task with 50-ms primes in adult and developing readers. Indeed, masked phonological priming at this prime duration has been consistently reported in adults, but not in developing readers (Davis, Castles, & Iakovidis, 1998). Thus, if consonant/vowel asymmetries in letter position coding with adults are due to phonological inf…
Does orthographic processing emerge rapidly after learning a new script?
2021
Epub 2020 Aug 11 Orthographic processing is characterized by location-invariant and location-specific processing (Grainger, 2018): (1) strings of letters are more vulnerable to transposition effects than the strings of symbols in same-different tasks (location-invariant processing); and (2) strings of letters, but not strings of symbols, show an initial position advantage in target-in-string identification tasks (location-specific processing). To examine the emergence of these two markers of orthographic processing, we conducted a same-different task and a target-in-string identification task with two unfamiliar scripts (pre-training experiments). Across six training sessions, participants …
Do Grading Gray Stimuli Help to Encode Letter Position?
2021
Numerous experiments in the past decades recurrently showed that a transposed-letter pseudoword (e.g., JUGDE) is much more wordlike than a replacement-letter control (e.g., JUPTE). Critically, there is an ongoing debate as to whether this effect arises at a perceptual level (e.g., perceptual uncertainty at assigning letter position of an array of visual objects) or at an abstract language-specific level (e.g., via a level of “open bigrams” between the letter and word levels). Here, we designed an experiment to test the limits of perceptual accounts of letter position coding. The stimuli in a lexical decision task were presented either with a homogeneous letter intensity or with a graded gra…
Eye movements when reading sentences with handwritten words.
2016
The examination of how we read handwritten words (i.e., the original form of writing) has typically been disregarded in the literature on reading. Previous research using word recognition tasks has shown that lexical effects (e.g., the word-frequency effect) are magnified when reading difficult handwritten words. To examine this issue in a more ecological scenario, we registered the participants’ eye movements when reading handwritten sentences that varied in the degree of legibility (i.e., sentences composed of words in easy vs. difficult handwritten style). For comparison purposes, we included a condition with printed sentences. Results showed a larger reading cost for sentences with dif…
Does Top-Down Feedback Modulate the Encoding of Orthographic Representations During Visual-Word Recognition?
2016
Abstract. In masked priming lexical decision experiments, there is a matched-case identity advantage for nonwords, but not for words (e.g., ERTAR-ERTAR < ertar-ERTAR; ALTAR-ALTAR = altar-ALTAR). This dissociation has been interpreted in terms of feedback from higher levels of processing during orthographic encoding. Here, we examined whether a matched-case identity advantage also occurs for words when top-down feedback is minimized. We employed a task that taps prelexical orthographic processes: the masked prime same-different task. For “same” trials, results showed faster response times for targets when preceded by a briefly presented matched-case identity prime than when preceded by …
Unveiling the boost in the sandwich priming technique.
2021
The masked priming technique (which compares #####-house-HOUSE vs. #####-fight-HOUSE) is the gold-standard tool to examine the initial moments of word processing. Lupker and Davis showed that adding a pre-prime identical to the target produced greater priming effects in the sandwich technique (which compares #####-HOUSE-house-HOUSE vs #####-HOUSE-fight-HOUSE). While there is consensus that the sandwich technique magnifies the size of priming effects relative to the standard procedure, the mechanisms underlying this boost are not well understood (i.e., does it reflect quantitative or qualitative changes?). To fully characterise the sandwich technique, we compared the sandwich and standard t…
¿Cuátna prátcica letcora hace fatla praa que poadmos leer palbraas con lertas trasnpuetsas?
2020
Las letras son estímulos visuales especiales. Inmersas en palabras, nos cuesta mucho distinguir “cedro” de “cerdo”, lo cual se conoce como efecto de transposición. Este efecto sucede en menor grado con secuencias de dígitos o símbolos. ¿Cuándo comienzan las letras a tener ese estatus especial? En un experimento reciente de nuestro laboratorio demostramos que seis días de práctica intensiva no son suficientes, pero ya permiten vislumbrar los inicios de un procesamiento especial de las letras.
What is the letter é?
2019
Most orthographies contain both accented and non-accented vowels. But are they processed as variants of the same letter unit or as separate abstract units? Recent research in French has revealed th...
Are You Taking the Fastest Route to the RESTAURANT?
2018
Abstract. Most words in books and digital media are written in lowercase. The primacy of this format has been brought out by different experiments showing that common words are identified faster in lowercase (e.g., molecule) than in uppercase (MOLECULE). However, there are common words that are usually written in uppercase (street signs, billboards; e.g., STOP, PHARMACY). We conducted a lexical decision experiment to examine whether the usual letter-case configuration (uppercase vs. lowercase) of common words modulates word identification times. To this aim, we selected 78 molecule-type words and 78 PHARMACY-type words that were presented in lowercase or uppercase. For molecule-type words,…
Why braille reading is important and how to study it /Por qué es importante la lectura en braille y cómo estudiarla
2016
AbstractDespite its relevance in theoretical and practical terms, braille reading has received little attention from researchers. Awareness of the pros and cons of the different procedures used to examine braille reading is needed to facilitate the realization of systematic studies and to improve teaching methods in braille reading. This study provides a critical examination of braille reading methods and highlights key points for future studies on tactile reading.
Is there a cost at encoding words with joined letters during visual word recognition?
2018
Abstract For simplicity, models of visual-word recognition have focused on printed words composed of separated letters, thus overlooking the processing of cursive words. Manso de Zuniga, Humphreys, and Evett (1991) claimed that there is an early “cursive normalization” encoding stage when processing written words with joined letters. To test this claim, we conducted a lexical decision experiment in which words were presented either with separated or joined letters. To examine if the cost of letter segmentation occurs early in processing, we also manipulated a factor (i.e., word-frequency) that is posited to affect subsequent lexical processing. Results showed faster response times for the w…
Phonological-Lexical Feedback during Early Abstract Encoding: The Case of Deaf Readers.
2016
In the masked priming technique, physical identity between prime and target enjoys an advantage over nominal identity in nonwords (GEDA-GEDA faster than geda-GEDA). However, nominal identity overrides physical identity in words (e.g., REAL-REAL similar to real-REAL). Here we tested whether the lack of an advantage of the physical identity condition for words was due to top-down feedback from phonological-lexical information. We examined this issue with deaf readers, as their phonological representations are not as fully developed as in hearing readers. Results revealed that physical identity enjoyed a processing advantage over nominal identity not only in nonwords but also in words (GEDA-GE…
¿Son necesarios los acentos gráficos en español o es tiempo de jubilarlos?
2021
La acentuación gráfica (tildes) en español es un tema que genera controversia entre los expertos. Partiendo del diferente (des)uso de los acentos gráficos en diferentes lenguas, nos cuestionamos si estos realmente ayudan a la identificación de palabras durante la lectura en español. Investigaciones recientes muestran que la omisión de los acentos gráficos en palabras no conlleva un coste en la lectura respecto a aquellas palabras escritas con sus correspondientes tildes. ¿Estaremos ante la decadencia del acento gráfico en español?
Los colores como claves perceptivas durante la lectura
2015
En español, como en muchas otras ortografías, las palabras escritas están diferenciadas unas de otras mediante la inserción de espacios. El hecho de que haya lenguas que no utilizan espacios, y que añadirlos no mejore la lectura en dichas lenguas (v.g., en thai), relativiza la importancia de los espacios entre palabras. Experimentos recientes en nuestro laboratorio han mostrado que la segmentación perceptiva de las palabras puede conseguirse fácilmente alternando el color de las mismas, sin necesidad de espacios. Ello lleva a re-examinar el papel de los colores en el aprendizaje de la lectura.
How are words with diacritical vowels represented in the mental lexicon? Evidence from Spanish and German
2021
Recent research has shown that the omission of diacritics in words does not affect the initial contact with the lexical entries, as measured by masked priming. In the present study, we directly examined whether diacritics’ omission slows down lexical access using a single-presentation semantic categorisation task (“is the word an animal name?”). We did so in a language in which diacritics reflect lexical stress but not vowel quality (Spanish; e.g. ratón [mouse] vs. raton; Experiment 1) and in a language in which diacritics reflect vowel quality but not lexical stress (German; e.g. Kröte vs. Krote; Experiment 2). In Spanish, word response times were similar for words with diacritics that wer…
Jalapeno or jalapeño: Do diacritics in consonant letters modulate visual similarity effects during word recognition?
2020
AbstractPrior research has shown that word identification times to DENTIST are faster when briefly preceded by a visually similar prime (dentjst; i↔j) than when preceded by a visually dissimilar prime (dentgst). However, these effects of visual similarity do not occur in the Arabic alphabet when the critical letter differs in the diacritical signs: for the target the visually similar one-letter replaced prime (compare and is no more effective than the visually dissimilar one-letter replaced prime Here we examined whether this dissociative pattern is due to the special role of diacritics during word processing. We conducted a masked priming lexical decision experiment in Spanish using target…
The Omission of Accent Marks Does Not Hinder Word Recognition: Evidence From Spanish
2021
Recent research has found that the omission of accent marks in Spanish does not produce slower word identification times in go/no-go lexical decision and semantic categorization tasks [e.g., cárcel (prison) = carcel], thus suggesting that vowels like á and a are represented by the same orthographic units during word recognition and reading. However, there is a discrepant finding with the yes/no lexical decision task, where the words with the omitted accent mark produced longer response times than the words with the accent mark. In Experiment 1, we examined this discrepant finding by running a yes/no lexical decision experiment comparing the effects for words and non-words. Results showed sl…
Are better young readers more likely to confuse their mother with their mohter?
2021
One of the most replicated effects in the contemporary word recognition literature is the transposed-letter effect (TL effect): pseudowords created by the transposition of two letters (e.g., MOHTER) are often misread as the real word. This effect ruled out those accounts that assume that letter position is encoded accurately and led to more flexible coding schemes. Here, we examined whether reading skill modulates this effect. The relationship between reading skill and the TL effect magnitude is a contentious issue both empirically and theoretically. The present lexical decision experiment was designed to shed some light on the relationship between reading skill and the TL effect magnitude…
Does Extra Interletter Spacing Help Text Reading in Skilled Adult Readers?
2016
AbstractA number of experiments have shown that, in skilled adult readers, a small increase in interletter spacing speeds up the process of visual word recognition relative to the default settings (i.e., judge faster than judge). The goal of the present experiment was to examine whether this effect can be generalized to a more ecological scenario: text reading. Each participant read two stories (367 words each) taken from a standardized reading test. The stories were presented with the standard interletter spacing or with a small increase in interletter spacing (+1.2 points to default) in a within-subject design. An eyetracker was used to register the participants’ eye movements. Comprehens…
Can letter position encoding be modified by visual perceptual elements?
2018
A plethora of studies has revealed that letter position coding is relatively flexible during word recognition (e.g., the transposed-letter [TL] pseudoword CHOLOCATE is frequently misread as CHOCOLATE). A plausible explanation of this phenomenon is that letter identity and location are not perfectly bound as a consequence of the limitations of the visual system. Thus, a complete characterization of letter position coding requires an examination of how letter position coding can be modulated by visual perceptual elements. Here we conducted three lexical decision experiments with TL and replacement-letter pseudowords that manipulated the visual characteristics of the stimuli. In Experiment 1,…
Does omitting the accent mark in a word affect sentence reading? Evidence from Spanish
2021
Lexical stress in multisyllabic words is consistent in some languages (e.g., first syllable in Finnish), but it is variable in others (e.g., Spanish, English). To help lexical processing in a transparent language like Spanish, scholars have proposed a set of rules specifying which words require an accent mark indicating lexical stress in writing. However, recent word recognition using that lexical decision showed that word identification times were not affected by the omission of a word’s accent mark in Spanish. To examine this question in a paradigm with greater ecological validity, we tested whether omitting the accent mark in a Spanish word had a deleterious effect during silent sentenc…
Where is the locus of the lowercase advantage during sentence reading?
2016
While most models of visual word identification and reading posit that a word's visual codes are rapidly transformed onto case-invariant representations (i.e., table and TABLE would equally activate the word unit corresponding to "table"), a number of experiments have shown a lowercase advantage in various word identification and reading tasks. In the present experiment, we examined the locus of this lowercase advantage by comparing the pattern of eye movements when reading sentences in lowercase vs. uppercase. Each sentence contained a target word that was high or low in word-frequency. Overall, results showed faster reading times for lowercase than for uppercase sentences. More important,…
¿Podemos agilizar la lectura en aprendices de chino?
2018
Una de las dificultades que conlleva el aprendizaje del chino es que las palabras escritas no están delimitadas. Una estrategia para minimizar dicha dificultad es añadir espacios entre palabras, pero ello genera un patrón alterado de los movimientos oculares que reduce la eficiencia del procesamiento visual. Una mejor opción es colorear alternadamente las palabras de un texto. Esta manipulación produce tiempos de lectura más rápidos en lectores principiantes de chino y ayuda en textos con palabras poco familiares en lectores adultos. Por tanto, la coloración alternada es una buena opción para agilizar el aprendizaje lector en chino.
Are go/no-go tasks preferable to two-choice tasks in response time experiments with older adults?
2015
Epub ahead of print 02/11/2015 Recent research has shown that, in response time (RT) tasks, the go/no-go response procedure produces faster (and less noisy) RTs and fewer errors than the two-choice response procedure in children, although these differences are substantially smaller in college-aged adults. Here we examined whether the go/no-go procedure can be preferred to the two-choice procedure in RT experiments with older adults (i.e. another population with slower and more error-prone responding than college-aged individuals). To that end, we compared these response procedures in two experiments with older adults (Mage = 83 years): a visual word recognition task (lexical decision) and a…
Does consonant–vowel skeletal structure play a role early in lexical processing? Evidence from masked priming
2017
Published online: 02 November 2017 Is the specific consonant–vowel (CV) letter combination of a word a basic source of information for lexical access in the early stages of processing? We designed two masked priming lexical decision experiments to respond to this question by directly examining the role of CV skeletal structure in written-word recognition. To that aim, each target word was preceded by a one-letter different nonword prime that kept the same CV skeletal structure or not. We also included an identity prime as a control. Results showed faster word identification times in the CV congruent condition than in the CV incongruent condition when a consonant was replaced from the target…
Visual letter similarity effects during sentence reading: Evidence from the boundary technique
2018
The study of how the cognitive system encodes letter identities from the visual input has received much attention in models of visual word recognition but it has typically been overlooked in models of eye movement control in reading. Here we examined how visual letter similarity affects early word processing during reading using Rayner's (1975) boundary change technique in which the parafoveal preview of the target word was either identical (e.g., frito-frito [fried]) or a one-letter-different nonword (e.g., frjto-frito vs. frgto-frito). Critically, the substituted letter in the nonword was visually similar (based on letter confusability norms) or visually dissimilar. Results showed shorter…
On the limits of familiarity accounts in lexical decision: The case of repetition effects
2019
Recent modelling accounts of the lexical decision task have suggested that the reading system performs evidence accumulation to carry out some functions. Evidence accumulation models have been very successful in accounting for effects in the lexical decision task, including the dissociation of repetition effects for words and nonwords (facilitative for words but inhibitory for nonwords). The familiarity of a repeated item triggers its recognition, which facilitates ‘word’ responses but hampers nonword rejection. However, reports of facilitative repetition effects for nonwords with several repetitions in short blocks challenge this hypothesis and favour models based on episodic retrieval. T…
sj-docx-1-qjp-10.1177_17470218211044694 – Supplemental material for Does omitting the accent mark in a word affect sentence reading? Evidence from Sp…
2021
Supplemental material, sj-docx-1-qjp-10.1177_17470218211044694 for Does omitting the accent mark in a word affect sentence reading? Evidence from Spanish by Ana Marcet and Manuel Perea in Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology
Supplementary_Material_ – Supplemental material for On the limits of familiarity accounts in lexical decision: The case of repetition effects
2019
Supplemental material, Supplementary_Material_ for On the limits of familiarity accounts in lexical decision: The case of repetition effects by Manuel Perea, Ana Marcet, Marta Vergara-Martínez and Pablo Gomez in Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology
sj-docx-1-qjp-10.1177_17470218211012960 – Supplemental material for Are better young readers more likely to confuse their mother with their mohter?
2021
Supplemental material, sj-docx-1-qjp-10.1177_17470218211012960 for Are better young readers more likely to confuse their mother with their mohter? by Pablo Gomez, Ana Marcet and Manuel Perea in Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology