title: Visual word expertise: a study of inversion and the word-length effect, with perceptual transforms.
abstract: The word-length effect may indicate whether reading is proceeding in an efficient whole-word fashion or by serial letter processing. If it is an index of an orientation-dependent expert reading mechanism, then it should show an inversion effect, with a large difference between upright and upside-down text that is specific for normally configured text. We measured response time of healthy subjects reading 3- to 9-letter words presented in normal configuration, in mirror reflection or spelt backward, in either upright or inverted orientation. The word-length effect showed an inversion effect specific for normal text, as it was not seen for either backward or mirrored text, a result that differed from that for simple mean response times. Also, the word-length effect was smaller for backward than for mirrored text, suggesting that reading of transformed text uses primarily local letters rather than global word forms. We conclude that the word-length effect is a suitable index of expert reading, and reveals that reading under perceptually difficult conditions relies on a sublexical letter-based strategy.
authors.forename: Laura Eklinder
authors.initials: LE
authors.lastname: Björnström
authors.forename: Charlotte
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Hills
authors.forename: Hashim
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hanif
authors.forename: Jason J S
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Barton
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention; D032882:Comprehension; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009949:Orientation; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D011930:Reaction Time; D011932:Reading; D012193:Reversal Learning; D055815:Young Adult