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Cross-modal transposed letter priming effects are evidence for the bimodal processing of words
Poster C127 in Poster Session C, Wednesday, October 25, 10:15 am - 12:00 pm CEST, Espace Vieux-Port
Stefanie Türk1,2, Ulrike Domahs1,2; 1Neurolinguistics Group, Institute of German Linguistics, Philipps-University Marburg, Germany, 2Center for Mind, Brain and Behavior, Philipps-University Marburg, Germany
The processing of orthographic information is dependent on the orthographic depth of the writing system, leading to cross-linguistic differences in reading and reading-related behaviors (e.g., Goswami, 2010; Landerl et al., 1997; Rau et al., 2015; Ziegler & Goswami, 2005). Moreover, a recent line of studies found that the processing of spoken words does not only involve phonological, but also orthographic information, and can thus be classified as a bimodal process (e.g., Chéraux et al., 2007; Perre et al., 2009; Perre & Ziegler, 2008; Ziegler & Ferrand, 1998). A paradigm that has been widely used to study orthographic processing is transposed letter (TL) priming. TL non-words constructed by exchanging the positions of two letters within a word (e.g., jugde – judge) have been found to prime their base words better than orthographic controls (e.g., jupte – judge) (e.g., Perea & Carreiras, 2006; Perea & Lupker, 2004). TL effects have been replicated for different languages, different scripts as well as L1 and L2 speakers and are taken as evidence for flexible letter position coding during visual word recognition (e.g., Meade et al., 2022; Perea et al., 2011). In accordance with the Bimodal Interactive Activation Model (Grainger & Ferrand, 1994, 1996), we argue that if word processing is bimodal in nature, we should be able to use a visual TL prime to prime an auditory target word. Because orthographic processing is dependent upon the orthographic depth, we might observe processing differences between English, a deep orthography, and German, a shallow orthography. Here, we present an EEG study, in which for the first time we used cross-modal transposed letter (TL) priming with a visual prime and an auditory target to investigate the bimodal processing of words in English and German. We tested late German-English bilinguals in their L1 and their L2 and presented cognate words in three conditions: a TL condition (e.g., GADREN – [ɡɑɹdən]), an identical condition (e.g., GARDEN - [ɡɑɹdən]) and an orthographic control condition (e.g., GABPEN - [ɡɑɹdən]). ERP results showed that for both languages, TL priming led to significantly reduced amplitudes compared to an orthographic control condition, but this effect emerged around 150 to 200 ms for the English group at fronto-central electrode sites and at around 300 to 400 ms for the German group at parietal electrode sites. Thus, orthographic effects influenced processing at an earlier point in time in English compared to German and showed a different topographic distribution. Effects in both languages were accompanied by higher inter-trial phase coherence in the gamma range. Our study is the first to show TL priming effects in a cross-modal paradigm which confirms bimodal activation of word representations during spoken word processing in English and German. Moreover, our results indicate that the neuronal mechanisms involved in bimodal processing of orthography and phonology differ in their temporal and topographical characteristics between the two languages. We conclude that the activation of orthographic information during spoken word recognition affects English, a deep orthography, at an earlier level of processing than German, a shallow orthography.
Topic Areas: Reading, Phonology