title: The spatio-temporal dynamics of visual letter recognition.
abstract: We applied the Bubbles technique to reveal directly the spatio-temporal features of uppercase Arial letter identification. We asked four normal readers to each identify 26,000 letters that were randomly sampled in space and time; afterwards, we performed multiple linear regressions on the participant's response accuracy and the space-time samples. We contend that each cluster of connected significant regression coefficients is a letter feature. To bridge the gap between the letter identification literature and this experiment, we also determined the relative importance of the features proposed in the letter identification literature. Results show clear modulations of the relative importance of the letter features of some letters across time, demonstrating that letter features are not always extracted simultaneously at constant speeds. Furthermore, of all the feature classes proposed in the literature, line terminations and horizontals appear to be the two most important for letter identification.
authors.affiliation: University of Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Fiset
authors.forename: Caroline
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Blais
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Arguin
authors.forename: Karine
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Tadros
authors.forename: Catherine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ethier-Majcher
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Bub
authors.forename: Frederic
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Gosselin
mesh_terms: D004193:Discrimination Learning / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008960:Models, Psychological; D017711:Nonlinear Dynamics; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D021641:Recognition, Psychology / Q000502:physiology*; D013997:Time Factors