title: The time course of visual influences in letter recognition.
abstract: This study builds on a specific characteristic of letters of the Roman alphabet-namely, that each letter name is associated with two visual formats, corresponding to their uppercase and lowercase versions. Participants had to read aloud the names of single letters, and event-related potentials (ERPs) for six pairs of visually dissimilar upper- and lowercase letters were recorded. Assuming that the end product of processing is the same for upper- and lowercase letters sharing the same vocal response, ERPs were compared backward, starting from the onset of articulatory responses, and the first significant divergence was observed 120 ms before response onset. Given that naming responses were produced at around 414 ms, on average, these results suggest that letter processing is influenced by visual information until 294 ms after stimulus onset. This therefore provides new empirical evidence regarding the time course and interactive nature of visual letter perception processes.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Psychologie Cognitive-CNRS, Aix-Marseille Université, 3, place Victor Hugo-Case D, 13331, Marseille Cedex 03, France.
authors.forename: Sylvain
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Madec
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Psychologie Cognitive-CNRS, Aix-Marseille Université, 3, place Victor Hugo-Case D, 13331, Marseille Cedex 03, France.
authors.forename: Kévin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Le Goff
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Stéphanie K
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Riès
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire Parole et Langage, CNRS & Aix-Marseille University, Aix-en-Provence, France.|Brain and Language Research Institute, Aix-Marseille University, Marseille, France.
authors.forename: Thierry
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Legou
authors.affiliation: Institute of Neuroscience and Psychology, College of Medical, Veterinary and Life Sciences, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK.
authors.forename: Guillaume
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Rousselet
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Psychologie Cognitive-CNRS, Aix-Marseille Université, 3, place Victor Hugo-Case D, 13331, Marseille Cedex 03, France.
authors.forename: Pierre
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Courrieu
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Psychologie Cognitive-CNRS, Aix-Marseille Université, 3, place Victor Hugo-Case D, 13331, Marseille Cedex 03, France.|Brain and Language Research Institute, Aix-Marseille University, Marseille, France.
authors.forename: F-Xavier
authors.initials: FX
authors.lastname: Alario
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Psychologie Cognitive-CNRS, Aix-Marseille Université, 3, place Victor Hugo-Case D, 13331, Marseille Cedex 03, France.|Brain and Language Research Institute, Aix-Marseille University, Marseille, France.
authors.forename: Jonathan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Grainger
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Psychologie Cognitive-CNRS, Aix-Marseille Université, 3, place Victor Hugo-Case D, 13331, Marseille Cedex 03, France. arnaud.rey@univ-amu.fr.|Brain and Language Research Institute, Aix-Marseille University, Marseille, France. arnaud.rey@univ-amu.fr.
authors.forename: Arnaud
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rey
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D011932:Reading; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Event-related potentials; Letter processing; Visual perception