Assessing the influence of letter position in reading normal and transposed texts using a letter detection task.

Abstract

This is the unspecified version of the paper.This version of the publication may differ from the final published version. Permanent repository link: AbstractDuring word recognition, some letters appear to play a more important role than others.Although some studies have suggested that the first and last letters of a word have a privileged status, there is no consensus with regards to the importance of the different letter positions when reading connected text. In the current experiments, we used a simple letter search task to examine the impact of letter position on word identification in connected text using a classic paper and pencil procedure (Experiment 1) and an eye movement monitoring procedure (Experiment 2). InExperiments 3 and 4, a condition with transposed letters was included. Our results show that the first letter of a word is detected more easily than the other letters, and transposing letters in a word revealed the importance of the final letter. It is concluded that both the initial and final letters play a special role in word identification during reading, but that the underlying processes might differ. Word count: 153 wordsKeywords: reading, missing-letter effect, letter position, eye movementsLetter position effect in reading 3 Assessing the Influence of Letter Position in Reading Connected Texts Using a Letter Detection TaskAs the basic element of written words in alphabetic languages, the processing of letters has always had a special status in the study of word recognition. A number of studies have shown that the words exterior letters play an important role in word recognition (e.g., Humphreys, Evett, & Quilan, 1990;Jordan, Patching, & Milner, 2000;Mason, 1975;McCusker, Gough, & Bias, 1981;Stevens & Grainger, 2003). However, these studies used paradigms in which words are presented in isolation. As Jordan, pointed out: "whereas evidence of a privileged status for exterior letter pairs in processing single (foveal) word displays is plentiful […] this evidence has not been matched in studies in which words are presented in bodies of text" (p.900). Although there is evidence that both the first and the last letters of the word play a more important role than interior letters when reading connected text (e.g., Jordan, Thomas, Patching, & Scott-Brown, 2003) other studies have shown that only the first letter is critical (e.g., Briihl & Inhoff, 1995). The objective of the present series is to examine the importance of the words' exterior letters during reading by using a letter detection task.To investigate the contribution of individual letter positions in word processing during reading, Briihl and Inhoff (1995) used an eye contingent paradigm and manipulated the availability of letters in the target word when readers were fixating the previous word. They found a preview benefit -that is, fixation duration on the target word decreased -when the first letters of the target word were available in the parafovea compared to a condition where all letters were replaced by Xs. The availability of ...

Are Letter Detection and Proofreading Tasks Equivalent?

“…For the letter detection task, results were similar to those observed in Experiment 1, with more omissions for function than for content words. This result fits well with previous results revealing the same pattern of omissions when the target letter was involved in the transposition or not involved (Guérard et al, 2012). For the proofreading task, there was clearly a reverse effect, with more omissions for content than for function words.…”

“…Overall, there was no accuracy difference between the letter detection task and the proofreading task, whereas in Experiment 1 there were more omissions for the proofreading task than for the letter detection task. This difference across experiments could be explained by various factors including letter identity (d in Experiment 1 and n in Experiment 2; see Poirier, 1997, andSchneider &Healy, 1993) and letter position (first position in Experiment 1 and third position in Experiment 2; Guérard, Saint-Aubin, Poirier, & Demetriou, 2012). However, because the functional equivalence of the two tasks is not about the absolute level of omissions but about the pattern of omissions across conditions, this finding will not be further discussed.…”

Attention and Vision in Language Processing

“…Guérard et al (2012) conducted such a study. In effect, investigating the impact of letter position with eye monitoring only, either implies manipulating parafoveal preview or words' integrity.…”

Capturing Reading Processes in Connected Texts with Eye Movements and a Letter Detection Task

“…In contrast, with a letter detection task, it is possible to assess the importance of letter position without disturbing the integrity of the material being read. Guérard et al (2012) conducted such a study. As shown in Fig.…”

“…6.1, their results demonstrate that irrespective of the distance between the location of the closest fixation that preceded fixation on the critical word and fixation on the critical word, the first letter was better and faster detected than the letter in the middle or last position which did not differ. What is more, in their third experiment, Guérard et al (2012) included a transposed letter condition. Results reproduced in Fig.…”