Can the dual-route cascaded computational model of reading offer a valid account of the masked onset priming effect?

Abstract

The masked onset priming effect (MOPE) refers to the empirical finding that target naming is faster when the target (SIB) is preceded by a briefly presented masked prime that starts with the same letter/phoneme (suf) than when it does not (mof; Kinoshita, 2000, Experiment 1). The dual-route cascaded (DRC) computational model of reading (Coltheart, Rastle, Perry, Langdon, & Ziegler, 2001) has offered an explanation for how the MOPE might occur in humans. However, there has been some empirical discrepancy regarding whether for nonword items the effect is limited to the first-letter/phoneme overlap between primes and targets or whether orthographic/phonological priming effects occur beyond the first letter/phoneme. Experiment 1 tested these two possibilities. The human results, which were successfully simulated by the DRC model, showed priming beyond the first letter/phoneme. Nevertheless, two recent versions of the DRC model made different predictions regarding the nature of these priming effects. Experiment 2 examined whether it is facilitatory, inhibitory, or both, in order to adjudicate between the two versions of the model. The human results showed that primes exert both facilitatory and inhibitory effects.

The Emergence of a Phoneme-Sized Unit in L2 Speech Production: Evidence from Japanese–English Bilinguals

“…A term frequently found in the psycholinguistic literature is the “Masked Onset Priming Effect” or MOPE (e.g., Schiller, 2008 ; Mousikou et al, 2010 ) which refers to the finding in Indo-European languages (such as English, Dutch) that faster speech onset latencies occur when reading aloud target words that are preceded by a prime sharing its onset with the target. However, it might be more reasonable to use the term “Masked Initial Segment Priming Effect” or MISPE instead as it has been shown that the effect may depend on the language at hand (e.g., the onset in Dutch/English, the mora in Japanese and the syllable in Chinese) as well as an individual’s proficiency level.…”

“…This is consistent with the pattern that has been observed with monolingual speakers of English: an additional overlap in the vowel segment beyond the consonantal onset overlap leads to only a small increment in priming. For example, Kinoshita (2000) used 3-letter CVC non-word targets and reported that the onset priming effect (e.g., suf-SIB vs. muf-SIB) was substantial but an extra vowel overlap (sif-SIB) added only a statistically non-significant 3 ms increment; similarly, Mousikou et al (2010) reported a small 4 ms (though statistically significant) increment.…”

Visual imagery influences brain responses to visual stimulation in bilateral cortical blindness

“…Based on the double dissociations that have been reported for visual imagery on the one hand and visual perception on the other hand at higher order levels of the visual processing stream like color and object categories (e.g., faces), in verbal material as well as in other modalities (Bartolomeo et al, 1998;Dulin et al, 2011;Guaita et al, 2009;Metcalf, Langdon, & Coltheart, 2010) we hypothesize intact imagery activation in higher order cortical regions (Mousikou, Coltheart, Finkbeiner, & Saunders, 2010). …”

Sex differences in phonological awareness and reading ability

“…Firstly, from a purely logical point of view, it is reasonable to suppose that phonological ability influences the process of learning alphabetic writing systems, given that such systems represent speech sounds. Secondly, it is well established that phonological representations are active during the reading process (see Mousikou, Coltheart, Finkbeiner, & Saunders, 2010). It is therefore logical to consider the possibility that the process of learning to read is influenced by the nature of the phonological representations possessed by the learner.…”