The time course of processing handwritten words: An ERP investigation

NEUROPSYCHOLOGIA

卷:159

Article

Vergara-Martinez, Marta¹  Gutierrez-Sigut, Eva²  Perea, Manuel^1,3,4  Gil-Lopez, Cristina⁵  Carreiras, Manuel^4,6,7 

[1] Univ Valencia, ERI Lect, Valencia, Spain

[2] Univ Essex, Dept Psychol, Colchester, Essex, England

[3] Univ Nebrija, Madrid, Spain

[4] Basque Ctr Cognit Brain & Language, Donostia San Sebastian, Spain

[5] Univ Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, Grenoble, France

[6] Ikerbasque, Basque Fdn Sci, Bilbao, Spain

[7] Univ Basque Country, UPV EHU, Bilbao, Spain

关键词: Visual word recognition;    ERPs;    Handwritten word processing;   

DOI  :  10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2021.107924

来源: Elsevier

【 摘 要 】

Behavioral studies have shown that the legibility of handwritten script hinders visual word recognition. Furthermore, when compared with printed words, lexical effects (e.g., word-frequency effect) are magnified for less intelligible (difficult) handwriting (Barnhart and Goldinger, 2010; Perea et al., 2016). This boost has been interpreted in terms of greater influence of top-down mechanisms during visual word recognition. In the present experiment, we registered the participants' ERPs to uncover top-down processing effects on early perceptual encoding. Participants' behavioral and EEG responses were recorded to high- and low-frequency words that varied in script's legibility (printed, easy handwritten, difficult handwritten) in a lexical decision experiment. Behavioral results replicated previous findings: word-frequency effects were larger in difficult handwriting than in easy handwritten or printed conditions. Critically, the ERP data showed an early effect of word-frequency in the N170 that was restricted to the difficult-to-read handwritten condition. These results are interpreted in terms of increased attentional deployment when the bottom-up signal is weak (difficult handwritten stimuli). This attentional boost would enhance top-down effects (e.g., lexical effects) in the early stages of visual word processing.

【 授权许可】

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