Journal of Research in Applied Sciences. Vol., 2(2): 33-36, 2015
Available online at http://www.jrasjournal.com
ISSN 2148-6662 © Copyright 2015
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Mirrored Letters in Forward-and Backward-Spelled
Word Recognition
Jeremy W. Grabbe
State University of New York, Plattsburgh
Corresponding Author Email: [email protected]
Abstract: This study examined the effect of mirrored letters when they were used in forward-spelled words and
backward-spelled words. Another key factor in the study was the location of mirrored letters. These results
replicated previous research on mirrored letters. Facilitation by mirrored letters in backwards-spelled words
contributes new evidence of orthographic based facilitation in word recognition regardless of positional expectancy.
Keywords: Mirrored letters, Forward-and backward-spelled word recognition.
Introduction
The study of word recognition has examined
jumbled letters as well as orthographic substitutions.
The most common conclusion of jumbled letters and
letter substitution has been that a detrimental cost to
performance is associated with substitution. Perea et
al (2008) showed that word recognition was not
affected when LEET primes were used in a primed
lexical decision task. This study examined the effect
of mirrored letters. This would involve the actually
letter as the substitution by inverting the letter as a
mirror image. This allows for an interesting study of
the role of orthography in substitutions.
A factor in word recognition is where in the word
the letter substitution occurs. Pitchford et al (2008)
found the in a five-letter word a “W” pattern is
observed for orthographic processes. Ktori and
Pitchford (2009) found that English-speaking
children have an advantage for orthographic
transparence for the right side of words.
Asymmetrical lexical effects have been observed in
older adults (Grabbe & Allen, 2013) In order to
examine and control for position effects substitutions
were examined by whether they were used towards
the beginning of the word or towards the end of the
words. English readers read from left to right. A
condition in which the words were spelled either
33
forwards or backwards was utilized to examine the
rightward advantage of words while controlling for
mirrored letter position
Materials and Methods
Participants
Thirty-three undergraduates were recruited from
the State University of New York, Plattsburgh. All
participants received course credit for their
participation.
Stimuli and Apparatus
All stimuli were presented on Dell 17 inch CRT
monitors. Stimuli were presented using e-prime 2.0
software. Participants performed a lexical decision
task of 1,296 trials. Participants would respond to
whether a letter string form a real, English word or a
non-word by pressing one of two keys on a
QWERTY keyboard. In the experiment, half of all
letter strings were spelled forward (“CHAIR”) or
backward (“RIAHC”). Forty percent of all trials in
both conditions contained mirrored letters
(“CHAIR”). See Figure 1 for examples spelling and
substitution conditions.
J. Res. Appl. Sci. Vol., 2(2): 33-36, 2015
Figure 1. Example of words with Mirror letter and positions.
Results
All reaction time date either below 500ms or
above 3,000ms was discarded. For words there was a
significant difference between words spelled forward
and words spelled backwards, t (32) = 21.37, p <
0.01. With forward spelling having a faster mean
reaction time. The data also showed that mirrored
letters toward the beginning of a word had a shorter
reaction times than mirrored letters at the toward end
of a word, t (32) = 4.30, p < 0.01 (Figure 2).
1700
Spelled Forwards-No
Mirror Letters
1500
1300
1100
Spelled Forward-Mirror
Letter in Right Side
900
700
Spelled Forward Mirror
Beginning
500
RT
Figure 2. Spelled Forward mirror beginning.
34
J. Res. Appl. Sci. Vol., 2(2): 33-36, 2015
Interestingly, when words were spelled backwards
there was a significantly large reaction time
advantage for having a mirrored letter toward the
right (which would be toward the end of a forward
spelled word) over backwards spelled words with no
mirrored letter, t (32) = 13.01, p < 0.01 (Figure 3). A
possible explanation is that the mirrored letter may
have drawn attention toward the right which would
facilitate recognition of the backwards spelled word.
1700
Spelled Backwards-No
Mirror Letters
1500
1300
1100
Spelled Backward- Mirror
Letter in Right Side
900
700
Spelled Backward- Mirror
Letter in Left Side
500
RT
Figure 3. Spelled backward mirror letter.
Discussion and Conclusion
The results showed a reaction time detriment for
backward-spelled letter strings compared to forwardspelled letter strings. The insertion of mirrored letters
significantly increased reaction time for forwardspelled letter strings. Interestingly, the use of
mirrored letters provided a marginally significant
decrease in reaction time for backward-spelled letter
strings. This may be a result of the mirrored letter.
These results replicated Duñabeita et al (2011)
because subjects in this experiment were able to
recognize words with mirrored letters. The discovery
of facilitation by mirrored letters in backwardsspelled words contributes new compelling evidence
of orthographic based facilitation in word recognition
despite changes in positional expectancy.
This study examined the effect of mirrored letters
when they were used in forward-spelled words and
backward-spelled words. Another key factor in the
35
study was the location of mirrored letters. These
results replicated previous research on mirrored
letters. Facilitation by mirrored letters in backwardsspelled words contributes new evidence of
orthographic based facilitation in word recognition
regardless of positional expectancy. This has
implications for future research by suggesting a
greater role of orthography-based facilitation in word
recognition.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
References
Duñabeita JA, Molinaro N, Carreiras M, 2011.
Through the looking-glass: Mirror reading.
NeuroImage. 54: 3004-3006.
J. Res. Appl. Sci. Vol., 2(2): 33-36, 2015
Grabbe JW, Allen PA, 2013. Age-related sparing of
parafoveal lexical processing. Experimental
Aging Research. 39: 419-444.
Johnson RL, Perea M, Rayner K, 2007. Transposedletter effects in reading: Evidence from eye
movment and parafoveal preview. Journal of
Experimental Psychology: Human Perception
and Performance. 33: 209-229. doi:
10.1037/0096-1523.33.1.209
Ktori M, Pitchford NJ, 2009. Development of letter
position processing: effects of age and
orthographic
transparency.
Journal
of
Research in Reading. 32: 180-198. doi:
10.1111/j.1467-9817.2009.01394.x
Lupker SJ, Perea M, Davis CJ, 2008. Transposedletter effects: Consonants, vowels, and letter
frequency. Language and Cognitive Processes.
23: 93-116. doi: 10.1080/01690960701579714
36
Perea M, Duñabeitia JA, Carreiras M, 2008.
R34D1NG W0RD5 W1TH NUMB3R5.
Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human
Perception and Performance. 34: 237-241. doi:
10.1037/0096-1523.34.1.237
Pitchford NJ, Ledgeway T, Masterson J, 2008. Effect
of orthographic processes in letter position
encoding. Journal of Research in Reading, 31,
97-116.doi:10.1111/j.1467- 817.2007.00363.x
Rayner K, Kaiser JS, 1975. Reading mutilated text.
Journal of Educational Psychology. 67: 301306. doi: 10.1037/h0077015
Rayner K, White SJ, Johnson RL, Liversedge SP,
2006. Raeding words with jumbled letters.
Psychological Science. 17: 192-193. doi:
10.1.1.77.1758.