ABSTRACT

Visual words and faces differ in their structural properties, but both are objects of high expertise. Holistic processing is said to characterize expert face recognition, but the extent to which whole-word processes contribute to word recognition is unclear, particularly as word recognition is thought to proceed by a component-based process. We review the evidence for experimental effects in word recognition that parallel those used to support holistic face processing, namely inversion effects, the part-whole task, and composite effects, as well as the status of whole-word processing in pure alexia and developmental dyslexia, contrasts between familiar and unfamiliar languages, and the differences between handwriting and typeset font. The observations support some parallels in whole-object influences between face and visual word recognition, but do not necessarily imply similar expert mechanisms. It remains to be determined whether and how the relative balance between part-based and whole-object processing differs for visual words and faces.

摘要

视觉词和面孔的结构特性不同，但都是高度专业化的对象。整体处理据说是专家人脸识别的特征，但整个词过程对词识别的贡献程度尚不清楚，特别是当词识别被认为是通过基于组件的过程进行时。我们回顾了单词识别实验效果的证据，这些效果与用于支持整体面部处理的实验效果平行，即倒置效应、部分整体任务和复合效应，以及全词处理在纯失读症和发展性阅读障碍中的地位、熟悉与陌生语言的对比，以及手写与排版字体的差异。观察结果支持面部和视觉单词识别之间在整体对象影响方面的一些相似之处，但并不一定意味着类似的专家机制。对于视觉文字和面部，基于部分和整体对象的处理之间的相对平衡是否以及如何不同还有待确定。