1. The missing-colour effect: The attentional beam captures reading-relevant and reading-irrelevant information
- Author
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Jean Saint-Aubin, Helene Deacon, Raymond M. Klein, and Celina Thompson
- Subjects
Male ,Physiology ,Computer science ,media_common.quotation_subject ,Color ,Experimental and Cognitive Psychology ,050105 experimental psychology ,03 medical and health sciences ,0302 clinical medicine ,Physiology (medical) ,Reading (process) ,Humans ,Attention ,0501 psychology and cognitive sciences ,Sensitivity (control systems) ,General Psychology ,media_common ,business.industry ,05 social sciences ,Pattern recognition ,General Medicine ,Missing letter effect ,Neuropsychology and Physiological Psychology ,Pattern Recognition, Visual ,Reading ,Feature (computer vision) ,Female ,Artificial intelligence ,Comprehension ,business ,030217 neurology & neurosurgery ,Beam (structure) - Abstract
According to many models, reading is driven by an attentional beam. In two experiments, we investigated the specificity of the beam by testing its sensitivity to a reading-irrelevant feature: colour. More specifically, participants were asked to read either a black-and-white version or a multi-colour version of the text in which each letter was printed in a different colour. In addition, while reading for comprehension, participants either searched for a target letter ( t or d) or for a colour (pink or black). In Experiment 1, we used the Nelson–Denny reading test and in Experiment 2, we used an experimental text. In both the experiments, the typical missing-letter effect was observed with letters: Participants missed more letters in function than in content words. Most importantly, although the effect was smaller, this pattern of results was also observed when participants searched for a colour (e.g., pink or black letters in a multi-coloured passage). Our results suggest that the attentional beam involved in reading is sensitive to both reading-relevant and reading-irrelevant information.
- Published
- 2020