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The impact of orthographic connectivity on visual word recognition in Arabic: A cross-sectional study

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Abstract

This study aimed at assessing the effects of letters’ connectivity in Arabic on visual word recognition. For this purpose, reaction times (RTs) and accuracy scores were collected from ninety-third, sixth and ninth grade native Arabic speakers during a lexical decision task, using fully connected (Cw), partially connected (PCw) and nonconnected (NCw) Arabic words and pseudowords. Effects of grade on word recognition (in RTs and accuracy) and word superiority were predicted to occur. Also, in the third grade, recognition of NCw was predicted to be faster and more accurate than recognition of Cw, because in previous studies NCw were assumed to be visually less complex. In sixth and ninth grades, due to the frequent exposure to connected forms, the recognition of Cw was predicted to be as fast as or faster and more accurate than NCw. The findings largely supported the first and the second hypotheses. As for the third graders, a mixed pattern was obtained, suggesting that the participants were probably in a transitional phase. The results from sixth graders clearly showed that NCw yielded the slowest response times and the lowest accuracy scores across connectivity conditions. Finally, for ninth graders, the absence of connectivity effects on the speed of processing was attributed to the use of very frequent and highly automatized words.

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Notes

  1. It is noteworthy that in these participants (7 from the third grade, 1 from the sixth grade and 4 from the ninth grade), the mean (M = −0.106) of the global d′ values was statistically not different from zero (t test for single means: t(10)= −1.53, p = .16) suggesting a random, by chance, response mode.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by the Edmond J. Safra Brain Research Center in the context of the post-doctoral work of H. Taha, and of the MA thesis of M. K-A., and by the Israeli National Science Foundation (Grant no’ 623/11). We would like to thank Miss Laurie Handelman for her help in English editing.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Unit for Research on Arabic Language, Faculty of Education, Edmond J. Safra Brain Research Center for the Study of Learning Disabilities, University of Haifa, Mount Carmel, 31905, Haifa, Israel

    Asaid Khateb, Haitham Y. Taha & Raphiq Ibrahim

  2. Department of Learning Disabilities, Faculty of Education, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel

    Asaid Khateb, Manal Khateb-Abdelgani, Haitham Y. Taha & Raphiq Ibrahim

  3. Sakhnin College for Teachers’ Education, Sakhnin, Israel

    Haitham Y. Taha

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  1. Asaid Khateb
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  2. Manal Khateb-Abdelgani
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Correspondence to Asaid Khateb.

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Khateb, A., Khateb-Abdelgani, M., Taha, H.Y. et al. The impact of orthographic connectivity on visual word recognition in Arabic: A cross-sectional study. Read Writ 27, 1413–1436 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-014-9499-y

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