Grainger, J.
Aix-Marseille University & CNRS, Marseille, France
In this talk I will present an overview of recent research examining the role of visual factors in printed word perception, and the extent to which basic processes in visual word recognition mimic basic processes in visual object identification (Dehaene’s “neuronal recycling hypothesis”). The wide variety of research that I will summarize adopts a common strategy involving the systematic comparison of processes involved in identifying printed words and other kinds of visual object, and comparing letter string processing with the processing of strings of other types of visual stimuli such as symbols and digits. Specifically, I will summarize research on: 1) Crowding and letter-in-string identification (in collaboration with M. Chanceaux); 2) The role of visual short-term memory in letter string processing (in collaboration with M. Ktori); 3) Processing speed of words and objects measured with the saccade-choice paradigm (in collaboration with M. Chanceaux, S. Thorpe, and F. Vitu,); 4) Event-related potentials (ERPs) generated by line drawings of common objects and words written in alphabetic and logographic scripts (in collaboration with C. Yum and P. Holcomb); and 5) Computational investigations of the neuronal recycling hypothesis (in collaboration with T. Hannagan).