Effects of stimulus font and size on masked repetition priming: An event-related potentials (ERP) investigation

The size and font of target words were manipulated in a masked repetition priming paradigm with ERP recordings. Repetition priming effects were found in four ERP components: the N/P150, N250, P325, and N400. Neither a change in font nor a change in size across prime and target were found to affect repetition priming in the N250, P325, and N400 components. Changing font was, however, found to affect repetition priming in the N/P150 component, while the interaction between repetition priming and size was not significant in this component. These results confirm our interpretation of the N/P150 as a component sensitive to feature-level processing, and suggest that the type of prelexical and lexical processing reflected in the N250, P325, and N400 components is performed on representations that are invariant to changes in both font and size.

[1]  Font regularity constraints on letter recognition , 1988 .

[2]  I. Biederman,et al.  Neural evidence for intermediate representations in object recognition , 2006, Vision Research.

[3]  S. Edelman,et al.  Differential Processing of Objects under Various Viewing Conditions in the Human Lateral Occipital Complex , 1999, Neuron.

[4]  S. Geisser,et al.  On methods in the analysis of profile data , 1959 .

[5]  Marianna D. Eddy,et al.  Masked repetition priming and event-related brain potentials: a new approach for tracking the time-course of object perception. , 2006, Psychophysiology.

[6]  Isabel Gauthier,et al.  Font Tuning Associated with Expertise in Letter Perception , 2006, Perception.

[7]  J. Pernier,et al.  ERP Manifestations of Processing Printed Words at Different Psycholinguistic Levels: Time Course and Scalp Distribution , 1999, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.

[8]  M. Kutas,et al.  Neurophysiological evidence for visual perceptual categorization of words and faces within 150 ms. , 1998, Psychophysiology.

[9]  Friedemann Pulvermüller,et al.  [Q:] When Would You Prefer a SOSSAGE to a SAUSAGE? [A:] At about 100 msec. ERP Correlates of Orthographic Typicality and Lexicality in Written Word Recognition , 2006, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.

[10]  Jeffrey R. Binder,et al.  Tuning of the human left fusiform gyrus to sublexical orthographic structure , 2006, NeuroImage.

[11]  Riitta Salmelin,et al.  Cortical Effects of Shifting Letter Position in Letter Strings of Varying Length , 2003 .

[12]  R. Salmelin,et al.  Dynamics of letter string perception in the human occipitotemporal cortex. , 1999, Brain : a journal of neurology.

[13]  N. Logothetis,et al.  Shape representation in the inferior temporal cortex of monkeys , 1995, Current Biology.

[14]  Jonathan Grainger,et al.  Neural constraints on a functional architecture for word recognition. , 2008 .

[15]  F. Pulvermüller,et al.  Effects of word length and frequency on the human event-related potential , 2004, Clinical Neurophysiology.

[16]  D. Pelli,et al.  The role of spatial frequency channels in letter identification , 2002, Vision Research.

[17]  Alfonso Caramazza,et al.  Spatial representation of words in the brain implied by studies of a unilateral neglect patient , 1990, Nature.

[18]  M. Sigman,et al.  The neural code for written words: a proposal , 2005, Trends in Cognitive Sciences.

[19]  S Lehéricy,et al.  The visual word form area: spatial and temporal characterization of an initial stage of reading in normal subjects and posterior split-brain patients. , 2000, Brain : a journal of neurology.

[20]  Svetlana S. Georgieva,et al.  Using Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging to Assess Adaptation and Size Invariance of Shape Processing by Humans and Monkeys , 2005, The Journal of Neuroscience.

[21]  Jonathan Grainger,et al.  Masked cross-modal repetition priming: An event-related potential investigation , 2007, Language and cognitive processes.

[22]  Kristi A. Kiyonaga,et al.  The time course of orthographic and phonological code activation. , 1993, Psychological science.

[23]  Katherine J. Midgley,et al.  On the time course of letter perception: A masked priming ERP investigation , 2006, Psychonomic bulletin & review.

[24]  James L. McClelland,et al.  An interactive activation model of context effects in letter perception: part 1.: an account of basic findings , 1988 .

[25]  C. Whitney How the brain encodes the order of letters in a printed word: The SERIOL model and selective literature review , 2001, Psychonomic bulletin & review.

[26]  James L. McClelland,et al.  An interactive activation model of context effects in letter perception: I. An account of basic findings. , 1981 .

[27]  J. Grainger,et al.  Semantic transparency and masked morphological priming: an ERP investigation. , 2007, Psychophysiology.

[28]  P. Jolicoeur,et al.  The interdependence of spatial attention and lexical access as revealed by early asymmetries in occipito-parietal ERP activity. , 2007, Psychophysiology.

[29]  M. Posner,et al.  Establishing a time‐line of word recognition: evidence from eye movements and event‐related potentials , 1998, Neuroreport.

[30]  Jonathan Grainger,et al.  Modeling letter position coding in printed word perception , 2004 .

[31]  Jonathan Grainger,et al.  On the Time Course of Visual Word Recognition: An Event-related Potential Investigation using Masked Repetition Priming , 2006, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.

[32]  J B Poline,et al.  Letter Binding and Invariant Recognition of Masked Words , 2004, Psychological science.