City Research Online

Assessing the Influence of Letter Position in Reading Normal and Transposed Texts Using a Letter Detection Task

Guerard, K., Saint-Aubin, J., Poirier, M. & Demetriou, C. (2012). Assessing the Influence of Letter Position in Reading Normal and Transposed Texts Using a Letter Detection Task. Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology, 66(4), pp. 227-238. doi: 10.1037/a0028494

Abstract

During word recognition, some letters appear to play a more important role than others. Although some studies have suggested that the first and last letters of a word have a privileged status, there is no consensus with regards to the importance of the different letter positions when reading connected text. In the current experiments, we used a simple letter search task to examine the impact of letter position on word identification in connected text using a classic paper and pencil procedure (Experiment 1) and an eye movement monitoring procedure (Experiment 2). In Experiments 3 and 4, a condition with transposed letters was included. Our results show that the first letter of a word is detected more easily than the other letters, and transposing letters in a word revealed the importance of the final letter. It is concluded that both the initial and final letters play a special role in word identification during reading but that the underlying processes might differ.

Publication Type: Article
Subjects: P Language and Literature > P Philology. Linguistics
Departments: School of Health & Psychological Sciences > Psychology
SWORD Depositor:
[thumbnail of Guerard_et_al_MLE_and_letter_position_CJEP.pdf]
Preview
PDF
Download (460kB) | Preview

Export

Add to AnyAdd to TwitterAdd to FacebookAdd to LinkedinAdd to PinterestAdd to Email

Downloads

Downloads per month over past year

View more statistics

Actions (login required)

Admin Login Admin Login