TY - JOUR
T1 - From complexity to distinctiveness
T2 - The effect of expertise on letter perception
AU - Wiley, Robert W.
AU - Rapp, Brenda
N1 - Funding Information:
The research reported here was supported by the Science of Learning Institute at Johns Hopkins University, Distinguished Science of Learning Fellowship to R.W.W. and by NIH grant DC006740 to B.R. We acknowledge Melissa Greenberger for her contributions to this project.
Funding Information:
Acknowledgements The research reported here was supported by the Science of Learning Institute at Johns Hopkins University, Distinguished Science of Learning Fellowship to R.W.W. and by NIH grant DC006740 to B.R. We acknowledge Melissa Greenberger for her contributions to this project.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018, Psychonomic Society, Inc.
PY - 2019/6/15
Y1 - 2019/6/15
N2 - Fluent, adult readers of alphabetic languages encounter hundreds of millions of individual letters. What is the impact of such extensive experience on the perception and identification of letters? Recent evidence indicates that expert and naïve observers perceive letters differently. Here, we focus on the relationship between expertise and letter complexity (number of visual features) and distinctiveness (overlap in features with the other letters of the alphabet). Using a same-different letter judgement task, we examined the performance of individuals with high levels of expertise with Roman letters, but with different amounts of experience with the Arabic alphabet. The results reveal a trade-off between letter complexity and distinctiveness, such that while naïve individuals are sensitive only to letter complexity and not distinctiveness, the opposite is true for individuals with high expertise with an alphabet. These findings reveal a learning trajectory in which, with increasing experience, the influence of letter complexity is supplanted by distinctiveness, which requires an understanding of the relationship of each letter to the other possible letter shapes in the alphabet as a whole.
AB - Fluent, adult readers of alphabetic languages encounter hundreds of millions of individual letters. What is the impact of such extensive experience on the perception and identification of letters? Recent evidence indicates that expert and naïve observers perceive letters differently. Here, we focus on the relationship between expertise and letter complexity (number of visual features) and distinctiveness (overlap in features with the other letters of the alphabet). Using a same-different letter judgement task, we examined the performance of individuals with high levels of expertise with Roman letters, but with different amounts of experience with the Arabic alphabet. The results reveal a trade-off between letter complexity and distinctiveness, such that while naïve individuals are sensitive only to letter complexity and not distinctiveness, the opposite is true for individuals with high expertise with an alphabet. These findings reveal a learning trajectory in which, with increasing experience, the influence of letter complexity is supplanted by distinctiveness, which requires an understanding of the relationship of each letter to the other possible letter shapes in the alphabet as a whole.
KW - Biscriptal
KW - Complexity
KW - Distinctiveness
KW - Letter perception
KW - Perceptual expertise
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U2 - 10.3758/s13423-018-1550-6
DO - 10.3758/s13423-018-1550-6
M3 - Article
C2 - 30478777
AN - SCOPUS:85057532925
SN - 1069-9384
VL - 26
SP - 974
EP - 984
JO - Psychonomic Bulletin and Review
JF - Psychonomic Bulletin and Review
IS - 3
ER -