Individual differences and the transposed letter effect during reading.

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Reading Science
• Psycholinguistics

Background:

• The transposed letter (TL) effect reveals flexible letter position encoding in reading.
• Previous research suggests letter position encoding flexibility develops with reading skill.
• The maturation of this flexibility in skilled adult readers remains unclear.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate if letter position encoding flexibility matures in skilled adult readers.
• To determine if cognitive skills influence the magnitude of the transposed letter effect in adults.

Main Methods:

• 100 skilled adult readers viewed sentences with correct, transposed letter (TL), or substituted letter (SL) previews.
• Eye movements were tracked as readers encountered previews and target words.
• Cognitive skills were assessed and analyzed using Principal Components Analysis (PCA).

Main Results:

• Adult readers generally encoded letter position more flexibly than letter identity, consistent with the TL effect.
• Few significant differences in TL effect magnitude were observed based on individual cognitive skill differences.
• The flexibility of letter position encoding appears to be mature in skilled adult readers.

Conclusions:

• Letter position encoding flexibility reaches near-maturation in skilled adult readers.
• Individual cognitive differences have a limited impact on the transposed letter effect in this population.
• Reading skill development leads to robust and stable letter position encoding flexibility.