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Does visual format matter in brand name recognition? ERP evidence challenging abstractionist models
Melanie Labusch1, Stéphanie Massol2, Teresa Civera3
1Departamento de Metodología and ERI Lectura, Facultad de Psicología, Universitat de València, Av. Blasco Ibáñez 21, 46010, Valencia, Spain; Health Research Institute La Fe, Avda. Fernando Abril Martorell, 106, 46026 Valencia Spain.
Neuropsychologia
|January 8, 2026
Summary
Brand names are recognized differently than regular words. Deviations in font and letter case affect brain activity, suggesting visual format influences processing for familiar brand names.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Psycholinguistics
- Experimental Psychology
Background:
- Visual word recognition typically assumes abstract representations, resilient to surface features like font and case.
- However, brand names, often seen in consistent formats, may challenge this abstractionist view.
- Previous research suggests visual format might play a role in brand name processing.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the electrophysiological effects of font and letter case deviations in brand names.
- To examine how these visual modifications impact the neural dynamics of lexico-semantic processing.
- To test the hypothesis that format-specific information is retained for familiar brand names.
Main Methods:
- Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded during a semantic categorization task.
- Participants evaluated brand names presented in their original format or with modified font or case.
- Neural responses (P200, P300, N400 amplitudes) to these visual manipulations were analyzed.
Main Results:
- Letter case changes led to reduced P200 amplitudes, indicating early perceptual processing costs.
- Both font and case modifications significantly altered P300 and N400 amplitudes.
- These ERP modulations suggest visual format influences brand name recognition.
Conclusions:
- Findings challenge strong abstractionist models of visual word recognition.
- A hybrid account, where format-specific information influences processing of familiar brand names, is favored.
- This suggests lexical memory for brand names is not fully abstract but retains visual format details.
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