Breakthrough Time Depends on Letter Type and Upright Orientation

Abstract

Familiarity has been suggested to be crucial for recognizing objects instantly without conscious awareness. To investigate, researchers have employed continuous flash suppression (CFS), a phenomenon that suppresses stimulus presented to one eye for a period by rapidly flickering images to the other. Prior research discovered that noticeable stimuli like faces and upright objects broke suppression and became perceivable faster. However, it is still being determined if this applies to letters. Therefore, using upright and inverted Japanese and Hangul (also upright and inverted) letter stimuli, native Japanese participants were tested if they could recognize upright Japanese letters faster. Results indicated that orientation and language had no effect. In another experiment, modern and old Japanese (Itaigana) letters were used, and interestingly inverted Itaigana stimuli were recorded as the slowest to be perceived. The results indicate that inversion and curvilinear elements in Itaigana may have provoked awareness to enter slower, regardless of familiarity.