Do handwritten words magnify lexical effects in visual word recognition?
An examination of how the word recognition system is able to process handwritten words is fundamental to formulate a comprehensive model of visual word recognition. Previous research has revealed that the magnitude of lexical effects (e.g., the word-frequency effect) is greater with handwritten words than with printed words. In the present lexical decision experiments, we examined whether the quality of handwritten words moderates the recruitment of top-down feedback, as reflected in word-frequency effects. Results showed a reading cost for difficult-to-read and easy-to-read handwritten words relative to printed words. But the critical finding was that difficult-to-read handwritten words, but not easy-to-read handwritten words, showed a greater word-frequency effect than printed words. Therefore, the inherent physical variability of handwritten words does not necessarily boost the magnitude of lexical effects.
a Departamento de Metodología , Universitat de València , Valencia , Spain.|b Basque Center on Cognition, Brain, and Language , BCBL , Donostia-San Sebastián , Spain.
Manuel
M
Perea
b Basque Center on Cognition, Brain, and Language , BCBL , Donostia-San Sebastián , Spain.
Cristina
C
Gil-López
a Departamento de Metodología , Universitat de València , Valencia , Spain.
Victoria
V
Beléndez
b Basque Center on Cognition, Brain, and Language , BCBL , Donostia-San Sebastián , Spain.|c Basque Foundation for Science , IKERBASQUE , Bilbao , Spain.
Manuel
M
Carreiras
D000704:Analysis of Variance; D005260:Female; D006236:Handwriting; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D011932:Reading; D021641:Recognition, Psychology / Q000502:physiology*; D012660:Semantics; D013334:Students; D014495:Universities; D014825:Vocabulary
Handwritten words; Visual-word recognition; Word frequency