The Influence of Reading Expertise in Mirror‐Letter Perception: Evidence From Beginning and Expert Readers
ABSTRACT
The visual word recognition system recruits neuronal systems originally developed for object perception which are characterized by orientation insensitivity to mirror reversals. It has been proposed that during reading acquisition beginning readers have to “unlearn” this natural tolerance to mirror reversals in order to efficiently discriminate letters and words. Therefore, it is supposed that this unlearning process takes place in a gradual way and that reading expertise modulates mirror‐letter discrimination. However, to date no supporting evidence for this has been obtained. We present data from an eye‐movement study that investigated the degree of sensitivity to mirror‐letters in a group of beginning readers and a group of expert readers. Participants had to decide which of the two strings presented on a screen corresponded to an auditorily presented word. Visual displays always included the correct target word and one distractor word. Results showed that those distractors that were the same as the target word except for the mirror lateralization of two internal letters attracted participants' attention more than distractors created by replacement of 2 internal letters. Interestingly, the time course of the effects was found to be different for the 2 groups, with beginning readers showing a greater tolerance (decreased sensitivity) to mirror‐letters than expert readers. Implications of these findings are discussed within the framework of preceding evidence showing how reading expertise modulates letter identification.
Number of times cited: 11
- Manuel Carreiras, Blair C. Armstrong and Jon Andoni Duñabeitia, Reading, Stevens' Handbook of Experimental Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience, (1-38), (2018).
- Thomas Lachmann, Reading and Dyslexia: The Functional Coordination Framework, Reading and Dyslexia, 10.1007/978-3-319-90805-2_13, (271-296), (2018).
- Tânia Fernandes and Isabel Leite, Mirrors are hard to break: A critical review and behavioral evidence on mirror-image processing in developmental dyslexia, Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 159, (66), (2017).
- Tânia Fernandes, Isabel Leite and Régine Kolinsky, Into the Looking Glass: Literacy Acquisition and Mirror Invariance in Preschool and First‐Grade Children, Child Development, 87, 6, (2008-2025), (2016).
- Emmanuel Ahr, Olivier Houdé and Grégoire Borst, Inhibition of the mirror generalization process in reading in school-aged children, Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 145, (157), (2016).
- Stanislas Dehaene, Laurent Cohen, José Morais and Régine Kolinsky, Illiterate to literate: behavioural and cerebral changes induced by reading acquisition, Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 16, 4, (234), (2015).
- Grégoire Borst, Emmanuel Ahr, Margot Roell and Olivier Houdé, The cost of blocking the mirror generalization process in reading: evidence for the role of inhibitory control in discriminating letters with lateral mirror-image counterparts, Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 22, 1, (228), (2015).
- Felipe Pegado, Enio Comerlato, Fabricio Ventura, Antoinette Jobert, Kimihiro Nakamura, Marco Buiatti, Paulo Ventura, Ghislaine Dehaene-Lambertz, Régine Kolinsky, José Morais, Lucia W. Braga, Laurent Cohen and Stanislas Dehaene, Timing the impact of literacy on visual processing, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 111, 49, (E5233), (2014).
- Kimihiro Nakamura, Michiru Makuuchi and Yasoichi Nakajima, Mirror-image discrimination in the literate brain: a causal role for the left occpitotemporal cortex, Frontiers in Psychology, 5, (2014).
- Thomas Lachmann, Andreas Schmitt, Wouter Braet and Cees van Leeuwen, Letters in the forest: global precedence effect disappears for letters but not for non-letters under reading-like conditions, Frontiers in Psychology, 5, (2014).
- Andrea Paula Goldin, Cecilia Inés Calero, Marcela Peña, Sidarta Ribeiro and Mariano Sigman, Educating to Build Bridges, "Mind, Brain, and Education", 7, 2, (101-103), (2013).
