The role of learning processes in visual word recognition.

This project intends to further investigate the role of learning processes in establishing an efficient network used in visual word recognition, by investigating participants while they learn a novel orthographic system. A better knowledge of the role of learning-processes in the acquisition of higher-order areas in the occipitotemporal stream, would lead to a better understanding of how reading progresses from the unskilled to the skilled level. We propose to investigate where and how statistical relations in the orthographic system of a language lead to the formation of an efficient network, using performance-measures of word recognition, as well as functional imaging (functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging, or fMRI).

Keywords:Neuro psychology

Disciplines:Animal experimental and comparative psychology, Applied psychology, Human experimental psychology, Linguistics