*Result*: How time shapes letter position flexibility: Testing positional uncertainty and open bigram accounts.
Title:
How time shapes letter position flexibility: Testing positional uncertainty and open bigram accounts.
Authors:
Romero-Ortells I; Centro de Investigación Nebrija en Cognición, Universidad Nebrija, Madrid, Spain., Perea M; Centro de Investigación Nebrija en Cognición, Universidad Nebrija, Madrid, Spain. mperea@uv.es.; Departamento de Metodología and ERI-Lectura, Universitat de València, Av. Blasco Ibáñez, 21, 46010, Valencia, Spain. mperea@uv.es., Baciero A; Departamento de Psicología Experimental, Procesos Cognitivos y Logopedia, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid, Spain., Gómez P; Psychology Department, Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY, USA., Marcet A; Departamento de Didáctica de la Lengua y la Literatura, Universitat de València, Valencia, Spain.
Source:
Psychonomic bulletin & review [Psychon Bull Rev] 2025 Dec 02; Vol. 33 (1), pp. 1. Date of Electronic Publication: 2025 Dec 02.
Publication Type:
Journal Article
Language:
English
Journal Info:
Publisher: Springer] Country of Publication: United States NLM ID: 9502924 Publication Model: Electronic Cited Medium: Internet ISSN: 1531-5320 (Electronic) Linking ISSN: 10699384 NLM ISO Abbreviation: Psychon Bull Rev Subsets: MEDLINE
Imprint Name(s):
Publication: <2013-> : [New York : Springer]
Original Publication: Austin, TX : Psychonomic Society, Inc., c1994-
Original Publication: Austin, TX : Psychonomic Society, Inc., c1994-
MeSH Terms:
References:
Adelman, J. S. (2011). Letters in time and retinotopic space. Psychological Review, 118, 570–582. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0024811. (PMID: 10.1037/a002481121823804)
Baciero, A., Gómez, P., Duñabeitia, J. A., & Perea, M. (2022). Raeding with the fingres: Towards a universal model of letter position coding. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 29, 2275–2283. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-022-02078-0. (PMID: 10.3758/s13423-022-02078-0)
Brysbaert, M., & Stevens, M. (2018). Power analysis and effect size in mixed effects models: A tutorial. Journal of Cognition, 1, 1. https://doi.org/10.5334/joc.10. (PMID: 10.5334/joc.10)
Bürkner, P. (2018). Advanced Bayesian multilevel modeling with the R package brms. The R Journal, 10, 395–411. https://doi.org/10.32614/RJ-2018-017. (PMID: 10.32614/RJ-2018-017)
Davis, C. J. (2010). The spatial coding model of visual word identification. Psychological Review, 117, 713–758. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0019738. (PMID: 10.1037/a001973820658851)
Duchon, A., Perea, M., Sebastián-Gallés, N., Martí, A., & Carreiras, M. (2013). EsPal: One-stop shopping for Spanish word properties. Behavior Research Methods, 45, 1246–1258. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-013-0326-1. (PMID: 10.3758/s13428-013-0326-123468181)
Dufour, S., Mirault, J., & Grainger, J. (2021). Do you want /ʃoloka/ on a /bistɔk/? On the scope of transposed-phoneme effects with nonadjacent phonemes. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 28, 1668–1678. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-021-01926-9. (PMID: 10.3758/s13423-021-01926-9)
Forstmann, B. U., Ratcliff, R., & Wagenmakers, E.-J. (2016). Sequential sampling models in cognitive neuroscience: Advantages, applications, and extensions. Annual Review of Psychology, 67(1), 641–666. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-122414-033645. (PMID: 10.1146/annurev-psych-122414-03364526393872)
Gomez, P., Ratcliff, R., & Perea, M. (2008). The overlap model: A model of letter position coding. Psychological Review, 115, 577–600. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0012667. (PMID: 10.1037/a0012667187295922597794)
Gómez, P., Marcet, A., & Perea, M. (2021). Are better young readers more likely to confuse their mother with their mohter? Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 74, 1542–1552. https://doi.org/10.1177/17470218211012960. (PMID: 10.1177/17470218211012960)
Gómez, P., Marcet, A., Rocabado, F., & Perea, M. (2025). Is letter position coding a unique skill for developing and adult readers in early word processing? Evidence from masked priming. Psychological Research = Psychologische Forschung, 89, 93. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-025-02080-w. (PMID: 10.1007/s00426-025-02080-w40259120)
Grainger, J. (2018). Orthographic processing: A ‘mid-level’ vision of reading. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 71, 335–359. https://doi.org/10.1080/17470218.2017.1314515. (PMID: 10.1080/17470218.2017.1314515)
Grainger, J. (2024). Letters, words, sentences, and reading. Journal of Cognition. https://doi.org/10.5334/joc.396. (PMID: 10.5334/joc.3963922085611363890)
Grainger, J., & van Heuven, W. J. B. (2004). Modelling letter position coding in printed word perception. In P. Bonin (Ed.), Mental lexicon: Some words to talk about words (pp. 1–23). Nova Science Publishers.
Grainger, J., & Ziegler, J. C. (2011). A dual-route approach to orthographic processing. Frontiers in Psychology, 2, 54. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2011.00054. (PMID: 10.3389/fpsyg.2011.00054217165773110785)
Hintzman, D. L., & Curran, T. (1997). Comparing retrieval dynamics in recognition memory and lexical decision. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 126, 228–247. https://doi.org/10.1037/0096-3445.126.3.228. (PMID: 10.1037/0096-3445.126.3.228)
Labusch, M., Perea, M., Rocabado, F., Marcet, A., Fernández-López, M., Civera, T., & Vergara-Martínez, M. (2024). Tracking the brain signature of (mis)spelled logotypes via letter transpositions and replacements. Scientific Reports, 14, 18538. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-69525-x. (PMID: 10.1038/s41598-024-69525-x3912292011316081)
Lee, C. E., Pagán, A., Godwin, H. J., & Drieghe, D. (2024). Individual differences and the transposed letter effect during reading. PLoS ONE. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0298351. (PMID: 10.1371/journal.pone.02983513977556411687887)
Logan, G. D. (1996). The CODE theory of visual attention: An integration of space-based and object-based attention. Psychological Review, 103, 603–649. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295x.103.4.603. (PMID: 10.1037/0033-295x.103.4.6038888649)
Logan, G. D. (2021). Serial order in perception, memory, and action. Psychological Review, 128, 1–44. https://doi.org/10.1037/rev0000253. (PMID: 10.1037/rev000025332804525)
López Zunini, R. A., Baart, M., Samuel, A. G., & Armstrong, B. C. (2022). Lexico-semantic access and audiovisual integration in the aging brain: Insights from mixed-effects regression analyses of event-related potentials. Neuropsychologia, 165, Article 108107. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2021.108107. (PMID: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2021.10810734921819)
Marcet, A., Perea, M., Baciero, A., & Gomez, P. (2019). Can letter position encoding be modified by visual perceptual elements? Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 72, 1344–1353. https://doi.org/10.1177/1747021818789876.
Massol, S., & Grainger, J. (2022). Effects of horizontal displacement and inter-character spacing on transposed-character effects in same-different matching. PLoS ONE, 17, e0265442. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0265442. (PMID: 10.1371/journal.pone.0265442353127058936455)
Mirault, J., & Grainger, J. (2021). Single word reading in the “real” world: Effects of transposed-letters. Journal of Cognition, 4, 27. https://doi.org/10.5334/joc.160. (PMID: 10.5334/joc.160340465458139302)
Mirault, J., Snell, J., & Grainger, J. (2018). You that read wrong again! A transposed-word effect in grammaticality judgments. Psychological Science, 29, 1922–1929. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797618806296. (PMID: 10.1177/095679761880629630355054)
Norris, D., Kinoshita, S., & van Casteren, M. (2010). A stimulus sampling theory of letter identity and order. Journal of Memory and Language, 62, 254–271. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jml.2009.11.002. (PMID: 10.1016/j.jml.2009.11.002)
Peirce, J. W., Hirst, R. J., & MacAskill, M. R. (2022). Building experiments in PsychoPy. SAGE Publications. (PMID: 10.4135/9781036231378)
Perea, M., & Lupker, S. J. (2004). Can CANISO activate CASINO? Transposed-letter similarity effects with nonadjacent letter positions. Journal of Memory and Language, 51, 231–246. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jml.2004.05.005. (PMID: 10.1016/j.jml.2004.05.005)
Perea, M., Marcet, A., Baciero, A., & Gómez, P. (2023). Reading about a RELO-VUTION. Psychological Research = Psychologische Forschung, 87, 1306–1321. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-022-01720-9. (PMID: 10.1007/s00426-022-01720-935948686)
Perea, M., Marcet, A., & Gomez, P. (2016). How do Scrabble players encode letter position during reading? Psicothema, 28, 7–12. https://doi.org/10.7334/psicothema2015.167. (PMID: 10.7334/psicothema2015.16726820417)
R Core Team. (2023). R: A language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing. https://www.r-project.org/.
Resulaj, A., Kiani, R., Wolpert, D. M., & Shadlen, M. N. (2009). Changes of mind in decision-making. Nature, 461(7261), 263–266. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature08275. (PMID: 10.1038/nature08275196930102875179)
Romero-Ortells, I., Baciero, A., Marcet, A., Perea, M., & Gómez, P. (2024). A stringent test of visuospatial position uncertainty accounts of letter position coding. Language, Cognition and Neuroscience, 39, 1278–1290. https://doi.org/10.1080/23273798.2024.2384045. (PMID: 10.1080/23273798.2024.2384045)
Snell, J., van Leipsig, S., Grainger, J., & Meeter, M. (2018). OB1-reader: A model of word recognition and eye movements in text reading. Psychological Review, 125, 969–984. https://doi.org/10.1037/rev0000119. (PMID: 10.1037/rev000011930080066)
Toscano, J. C., Anderson, N. D., & McMurray, B. (2013). Reconsidering the role of temporal order in spoken-word recognition. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 20, 981–987. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-013-0417-0. (PMID: 10.3758/s13423-013-0417-0)
Vergara-Martínez, M., Perea, M., Gomez, P., & Swaab, T. Y. (2013). ERP correlates of letter identity and letter position are modulated by lexical frequency. Brain and Language, 125, 11–27. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bandl.2012.12.009. (PMID: 10.1016/j.bandl.2012.12.009234540703612367)
Whitney, C. (2001). How the brain encodes the order of letters in a printed word: The SERIOL model and selective literature review. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 8, 221–243. https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03196158. (PMID: 10.3758/BF03196158)
Baciero, A., Gómez, P., Duñabeitia, J. A., & Perea, M. (2022). Raeding with the fingres: Towards a universal model of letter position coding. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 29, 2275–2283. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-022-02078-0. (PMID: 10.3758/s13423-022-02078-0)
Brysbaert, M., & Stevens, M. (2018). Power analysis and effect size in mixed effects models: A tutorial. Journal of Cognition, 1, 1. https://doi.org/10.5334/joc.10. (PMID: 10.5334/joc.10)
Bürkner, P. (2018). Advanced Bayesian multilevel modeling with the R package brms. The R Journal, 10, 395–411. https://doi.org/10.32614/RJ-2018-017. (PMID: 10.32614/RJ-2018-017)
Davis, C. J. (2010). The spatial coding model of visual word identification. Psychological Review, 117, 713–758. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0019738. (PMID: 10.1037/a001973820658851)
Duchon, A., Perea, M., Sebastián-Gallés, N., Martí, A., & Carreiras, M. (2013). EsPal: One-stop shopping for Spanish word properties. Behavior Research Methods, 45, 1246–1258. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-013-0326-1. (PMID: 10.3758/s13428-013-0326-123468181)
Dufour, S., Mirault, J., & Grainger, J. (2021). Do you want /ʃoloka/ on a /bistɔk/? On the scope of transposed-phoneme effects with nonadjacent phonemes. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 28, 1668–1678. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-021-01926-9. (PMID: 10.3758/s13423-021-01926-9)
Forstmann, B. U., Ratcliff, R., & Wagenmakers, E.-J. (2016). Sequential sampling models in cognitive neuroscience: Advantages, applications, and extensions. Annual Review of Psychology, 67(1), 641–666. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-122414-033645. (PMID: 10.1146/annurev-psych-122414-03364526393872)
Gomez, P., Ratcliff, R., & Perea, M. (2008). The overlap model: A model of letter position coding. Psychological Review, 115, 577–600. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0012667. (PMID: 10.1037/a0012667187295922597794)
Gómez, P., Marcet, A., & Perea, M. (2021). Are better young readers more likely to confuse their mother with their mohter? Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 74, 1542–1552. https://doi.org/10.1177/17470218211012960. (PMID: 10.1177/17470218211012960)
Gómez, P., Marcet, A., Rocabado, F., & Perea, M. (2025). Is letter position coding a unique skill for developing and adult readers in early word processing? Evidence from masked priming. Psychological Research = Psychologische Forschung, 89, 93. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-025-02080-w. (PMID: 10.1007/s00426-025-02080-w40259120)
Grainger, J. (2018). Orthographic processing: A ‘mid-level’ vision of reading. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 71, 335–359. https://doi.org/10.1080/17470218.2017.1314515. (PMID: 10.1080/17470218.2017.1314515)
Grainger, J. (2024). Letters, words, sentences, and reading. Journal of Cognition. https://doi.org/10.5334/joc.396. (PMID: 10.5334/joc.3963922085611363890)
Grainger, J., & van Heuven, W. J. B. (2004). Modelling letter position coding in printed word perception. In P. Bonin (Ed.), Mental lexicon: Some words to talk about words (pp. 1–23). Nova Science Publishers.
Grainger, J., & Ziegler, J. C. (2011). A dual-route approach to orthographic processing. Frontiers in Psychology, 2, 54. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2011.00054. (PMID: 10.3389/fpsyg.2011.00054217165773110785)
Hintzman, D. L., & Curran, T. (1997). Comparing retrieval dynamics in recognition memory and lexical decision. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 126, 228–247. https://doi.org/10.1037/0096-3445.126.3.228. (PMID: 10.1037/0096-3445.126.3.228)
Labusch, M., Perea, M., Rocabado, F., Marcet, A., Fernández-López, M., Civera, T., & Vergara-Martínez, M. (2024). Tracking the brain signature of (mis)spelled logotypes via letter transpositions and replacements. Scientific Reports, 14, 18538. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-69525-x. (PMID: 10.1038/s41598-024-69525-x3912292011316081)
Lee, C. E., Pagán, A., Godwin, H. J., & Drieghe, D. (2024). Individual differences and the transposed letter effect during reading. PLoS ONE. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0298351. (PMID: 10.1371/journal.pone.02983513977556411687887)
Logan, G. D. (1996). The CODE theory of visual attention: An integration of space-based and object-based attention. Psychological Review, 103, 603–649. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295x.103.4.603. (PMID: 10.1037/0033-295x.103.4.6038888649)
Logan, G. D. (2021). Serial order in perception, memory, and action. Psychological Review, 128, 1–44. https://doi.org/10.1037/rev0000253. (PMID: 10.1037/rev000025332804525)
López Zunini, R. A., Baart, M., Samuel, A. G., & Armstrong, B. C. (2022). Lexico-semantic access and audiovisual integration in the aging brain: Insights from mixed-effects regression analyses of event-related potentials. Neuropsychologia, 165, Article 108107. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2021.108107. (PMID: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2021.10810734921819)
Marcet, A., Perea, M., Baciero, A., & Gomez, P. (2019). Can letter position encoding be modified by visual perceptual elements? Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 72, 1344–1353. https://doi.org/10.1177/1747021818789876.
Massol, S., & Grainger, J. (2022). Effects of horizontal displacement and inter-character spacing on transposed-character effects in same-different matching. PLoS ONE, 17, e0265442. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0265442. (PMID: 10.1371/journal.pone.0265442353127058936455)
Mirault, J., & Grainger, J. (2021). Single word reading in the “real” world: Effects of transposed-letters. Journal of Cognition, 4, 27. https://doi.org/10.5334/joc.160. (PMID: 10.5334/joc.160340465458139302)
Mirault, J., Snell, J., & Grainger, J. (2018). You that read wrong again! A transposed-word effect in grammaticality judgments. Psychological Science, 29, 1922–1929. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797618806296. (PMID: 10.1177/095679761880629630355054)
Norris, D., Kinoshita, S., & van Casteren, M. (2010). A stimulus sampling theory of letter identity and order. Journal of Memory and Language, 62, 254–271. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jml.2009.11.002. (PMID: 10.1016/j.jml.2009.11.002)
Peirce, J. W., Hirst, R. J., & MacAskill, M. R. (2022). Building experiments in PsychoPy. SAGE Publications. (PMID: 10.4135/9781036231378)
Perea, M., & Lupker, S. J. (2004). Can CANISO activate CASINO? Transposed-letter similarity effects with nonadjacent letter positions. Journal of Memory and Language, 51, 231–246. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jml.2004.05.005. (PMID: 10.1016/j.jml.2004.05.005)
Perea, M., Marcet, A., Baciero, A., & Gómez, P. (2023). Reading about a RELO-VUTION. Psychological Research = Psychologische Forschung, 87, 1306–1321. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-022-01720-9. (PMID: 10.1007/s00426-022-01720-935948686)
Perea, M., Marcet, A., & Gomez, P. (2016). How do Scrabble players encode letter position during reading? Psicothema, 28, 7–12. https://doi.org/10.7334/psicothema2015.167. (PMID: 10.7334/psicothema2015.16726820417)
R Core Team. (2023). R: A language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing. https://www.r-project.org/.
Resulaj, A., Kiani, R., Wolpert, D. M., & Shadlen, M. N. (2009). Changes of mind in decision-making. Nature, 461(7261), 263–266. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature08275. (PMID: 10.1038/nature08275196930102875179)
Romero-Ortells, I., Baciero, A., Marcet, A., Perea, M., & Gómez, P. (2024). A stringent test of visuospatial position uncertainty accounts of letter position coding. Language, Cognition and Neuroscience, 39, 1278–1290. https://doi.org/10.1080/23273798.2024.2384045. (PMID: 10.1080/23273798.2024.2384045)
Snell, J., van Leipsig, S., Grainger, J., & Meeter, M. (2018). OB1-reader: A model of word recognition and eye movements in text reading. Psychological Review, 125, 969–984. https://doi.org/10.1037/rev0000119. (PMID: 10.1037/rev000011930080066)
Toscano, J. C., Anderson, N. D., & McMurray, B. (2013). Reconsidering the role of temporal order in spoken-word recognition. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 20, 981–987. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-013-0417-0. (PMID: 10.3758/s13423-013-0417-0)
Vergara-Martínez, M., Perea, M., Gomez, P., & Swaab, T. Y. (2013). ERP correlates of letter identity and letter position are modulated by lexical frequency. Brain and Language, 125, 11–27. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bandl.2012.12.009. (PMID: 10.1016/j.bandl.2012.12.009234540703612367)
Whitney, C. (2001). How the brain encodes the order of letters in a printed word: The SERIOL model and selective literature review. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 8, 221–243. https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03196158. (PMID: 10.3758/BF03196158)
Contributed Indexing:
Keywords: Letter position coding; Lexical access; Word recognition
Entry Date(s):
Date Created: 20251202 Date Completed: 20251202 Latest Revision: 20251202
Update Code:
20260130
DOI:
10.3758/s13423-025-02803-5
PMID:
41329299
Database:
MEDLINE
*Further Information*
*One of the critical benchmarks for understanding orthographic processing during word recognition and reading is the transposed-letter effect (e.g., in lexical decision, CHOLOCATE [created by transposing two letters from CHOCOLATE] produces slower and more error responses than CHOTONATE). Two main theoretical frameworks explain this phenomenon: positional uncertainty models, which attribute the effect to uncertainty in letter position encoding that diminishes over time, and open bigram models, which propose a level of ordered pairs of letters between the letter and word levels that may be more resilient to decay. We designed two delayed lexical decision experiments to test whether the transposed-letter effect vanishes or persists at two time delays (750 ms and 1,500 ms). In Experiment 1, a robust transposed-letter effect in accuracy emerged at 750 ms (9.6%) but diminished to a small (2.9%) yet reliable effect at 1,500 ms. Experiment 2 replicated this pattern with a contrast manipulation on the critical letters (e.g., CHOLOCATE vs CHOTONATE), yielding a slightly smaller transposed-letter effect (2.0%) at 1,500 ms. These findings demonstrate that positional uncertainty diminishes over time, yet residual orthographic overlap persists, particularly for a subset of participants, supporting hybrid accounts that combine bottom-up perceptual refinement with top-down contributions from shared sublexical codes (e.g., open bigrams).
(© 2025. The Psychonomic Society, Inc.)*
*Declarations. Conflicts of interest: The authors have no competing interests to declare relevant to this article's content. Ethics approval: This study was performed in line with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki. Approval was granted by the Ethics Committee of the University of València. Consent to participate and publication: Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study. Open practices (Availability of data, materials and code): The two experiments were preregistered: https://osf.io/bt5aj/?view_only=0c52c7b2996d496a9a6153373ea3b5a0 (Exp. 1) and https://osf.io/9qmue/?view_only=f61cdffdf37a45ad89dc6af62e84c1b9 (Exp. 2). The materials, data, code, and output of the two experiments are available at https://osf.io/6y4p9/?view_only=da2304c58ca143fb81f3c3969a2c1fb7*