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ERIC Number: EJ1394157
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2023-Oct
Pages: 16
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0278-7393
EISSN: EISSN-1939-1285
Available Date: N/A
Mirror Letter Priming Is Rightward-Biased but Not Inhibitory: Little Evidence for a Mirror Suppression Mechanism in the Recognition of Mirror Letters
Kinoshita, Sachiko; Liong, Gabrielle
Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, v49 n10 p1523-1538 Oct 2023
Unlike other visual objects which are invariant to the left-right orientation, mirror letters (e.g., b and d) represent different object identities. Previous masked priming lexical decision studies have suggested that the identification of a mirror letter involves suppression of its mirror image counterpart reporting as evidence that a pseudoword prime containing the mirror letter counterpart slowed down the recognition of target word relative to a control prime containing an unrelated letter (e.g., ibea-idea > ilea-idea). Furthermore, it has been reported recently that this inhibitory mirror priming effect is sensitive to the distributional bias of left/right orientation in the Latin alphabet such that only the more dominant (frequent) right-facing mirror letter prime (e.g., b) produced interference. In the present study, we examined mirror letter priming with single letters and nonlexical letter strings with adult readers. In all experiments, relative to a visually dissimilar control letter prime, both the right-facing and left-facing mirror letter prime consistently facilitated, rather than slowed down the recognition of a target letter (e.g., b-d < w-d). Assessed against an identity prime, mirror primes showed a rightward bias, although it was small in magnitude and not always significant within an individual experiment. These results provide no support for a mirror suppression mechanism in the identification of mirror letters, and an alternative interpretation in terms of noisy perception is suggested.
American Psychological Association. Journals Department, 750 First Street NE, Washington, DC 20002. Tel: 800-374-2721; Tel: 202-336-5510; Fax: 202-336-5502; e-mail: order@apa.org; Web site: http://www.apa.org
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Australia
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Data File: URL: https://osf.io/2pm5w/
Author Affiliations: N/A