TY - JOUR
T1 - Context-dependent similarity effects in letter recognition
AU - Kinoshita, Sachiko
AU - Robidoux, Serje
AU - Guilbert, Daniel
AU - Norris, Dennis
N1 - Version archived for private and non-commercial use with the permission of the author/s and according to publisher conditions. For further rights please contact the publisher.
PY - 2015/10/26
Y1 - 2015/10/26
N2 - In visual word recognition tasks, digit primes that are visually similar to letter string targets (e.g., 4/A, 8/B) are known to facilitate letter identification relative to visually dissimilar digits (e.g., 6/A, 7/B); in contrast, with letter primes, visual similarity effects have been elusive. In the present study we show that the visual similarity effect with letter primes can be made to come and go, depending on whether it is necessary to discriminate between visually similar letters. The results support a Bayesian view which regards letter recognition not as a passive activation process driven by the fixed stimulus properties, but as a dynamic evidence accumulation process for a decision that is guided by the task context.
AB - In visual word recognition tasks, digit primes that are visually similar to letter string targets (e.g., 4/A, 8/B) are known to facilitate letter identification relative to visually dissimilar digits (e.g., 6/A, 7/B); in contrast, with letter primes, visual similarity effects have been elusive. In the present study we show that the visual similarity effect with letter primes can be made to come and go, depending on whether it is necessary to discriminate between visually similar letters. The results support a Bayesian view which regards letter recognition not as a passive activation process driven by the fixed stimulus properties, but as a dynamic evidence accumulation process for a decision that is guided by the task context.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84942373745&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3758/s13423-015-0826-3
DO - 10.3758/s13423-015-0826-3
M3 - Article
C2 - 25855201
AN - SCOPUS:84942373745
SN - 1069-9384
VL - 22
SP - 1458
EP - 1464
JO - Psychonomic Bulletin and Review
JF - Psychonomic Bulletin and Review
IS - 5
ER -