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Claudia Bonfiglioli1

  • 1Department of Cognitive and Education Sciences (DiSCoF), and Center for Mind/Brain Sciences (CIMeC), University of Trento, 31 Corso Bettini, 38068 Rovereto (TN), Italy. claudia.bonfiglioli@unitn.it

Perception
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Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Reading performance declines with bottom-to-top vertical text arrangement. This study investigated the impact of vertical word order on reading efficiency, finding slower responses for this less common orientation.

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Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Linguistics
  • Human-Computer Interaction

Background:

  • Western languages predominantly use horizontal (left-to-right) and vertical (top-to-bottom) writing systems.
  • Established reading habits influence visual scanning and task performance across various domains.
  • The cognitive impact of vertical word order, particularly bottom-to-top, remains under-explored.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the effect of vertical word order on reading performance.
  • To compare the efficiency of bottom-to-top vertical text arrangement against standard orientations.
  • To understand how reading directionality influences cognitive processing.

Main Methods:

  • Utilized a lexical decision task (LDT) to assess word recognition.
  • Presented verbal material in different orientations, including bottom-to-top vertical arrangement.
  • Measured reaction times and accuracy to determine reading efficiency.

Main Results:

  • Reading performance was significantly less efficient when text was arranged vertically from bottom-to-top.
  • Participants exhibited slower response times in the bottom-to-top condition compared to other orientations.
  • The findings suggest a cognitive cost associated with processing text in a non-conventional vertical order.

Conclusions:

  • Vertical word order, specifically bottom-to-top, negatively impacts reading efficiency.
  • Cultural reading habits (e.g., left-to-right, top-to-bottom) influence cognitive processing of text.
  • Further research is needed to explore the full implications of non-standard text orientations in diverse contexts.