title: Does the brain regularize digits and letters to the same extent?
abstract: The cognitive system does not just act as a mirror from the sensory input; instead, it tends to normalize this information. Given that letter processing seems to be much more specialized than digit processing in the cortex, we examined whether the regularization process occurs differently from digits to letters than from letters to digits: We employed a masked priming same/different experiment (e.g., probe, VESZED; prime, V35Z3D; and target, VESZED). When embedded in letter strings, digits that resemble letters (e.g., 3 and 5 in V35Z3D-VESZED) tend to be encoded in a letter-like manner, whereas when embedded in digit strings, letters that resemble digits (e.g., E and S in 9ES7E2-935732) tend not to be encoded in a digit-like manner.
authors.affiliation: Universitat de València, Valencia, Spain. mperea@valencia.edu
authors.forename: Manuel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Perea
authors.forename: Jon Andoni
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Duñabeitia
authors.forename: Alexander
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Pollatsek
authors.forename: Manuel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Carreiras
mesh_terms: D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D004193:Discrimination Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D010470:Perceptual Masking / Q000502:physiology; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D021641:Recognition, Psychology / Q000502:physiology*