The Word Superiority Effect in central and peripheral vision

TY - JOUR

T1 - The Word Superiority Effect in central and peripheral vision

AU - Sand, Katrine

AU - Habekost, Thomas

AU - Petersen, Anders

AU - Starrfelt, Randi

PY - 2016/4/20

Y1 - 2016/4/20

N2 - The Word Superiority Effect (WSE) is a well-known phenomenon in reading research, where words are reported more accurately than single letters or non-words. We report two experiments that investigate the WSE in the central and peripheral visual field, as well as laterality differences in the perception of words and letters, using methods based on the Theory of Visual Attention. The results show a WSE in the central visual field, reflected in mean scores, perception thresholds, and processing speed, whereas the effect is eliminated or reversed in the periphery. This may be caused by crowding, which prevents lexical analysis of a word in the periphery. We conclude that perception of words and letters differs according to location in the visual field. Linking our results to previous studies of crowding effects in patients with reading impairments, we hypothesize that similar mechanisms may limit normal word peripheral processing.

AB - The Word Superiority Effect (WSE) is a well-known phenomenon in reading research, where words are reported more accurately than single letters or non-words. We report two experiments that investigate the WSE in the central and peripheral visual field, as well as laterality differences in the perception of words and letters, using methods based on the Theory of Visual Attention. The results show a WSE in the central visual field, reflected in mean scores, perception thresholds, and processing speed, whereas the effect is eliminated or reversed in the periphery. This may be caused by crowding, which prevents lexical analysis of a word in the periphery. We conclude that perception of words and letters differs according to location in the visual field. Linking our results to previous studies of crowding effects in patients with reading impairments, we hypothesize that similar mechanisms may limit normal word peripheral processing.

KW - Faculty of Social Sciences

KW - Word superiority effect

KW - Theory of Visual Attention

KW - laterality research

KW - reading

KW - visual word recognition

U2 - 10.1080/13506285.2016.1259192

DO - 10.1080/13506285.2016.1259192

M3 - Journal article

SN - 1350-6285

VL - 24

SP - 293

EP - 303

JO - Visual Cognition

JF - Visual Cognition

IS - 4

ER -