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Projeto de investigação
LEMON, LEtter learning through MOtor training: Neurocognitive specialization for the written code investigated with electrophysiological, eye-tracking, and computational tools
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From Hand to Eye With the Devil In-Between: Which Cognitive Mechanisms Underpin the Benefit From Handwriting Training When Learning Visual Graphs?
Publication . Fernandes, Tânia; Araújo, Susana
Cognitive science has recently shown a renewed interest on the benefit from training in handwriting (HW) when learning visual graphs, given that this learning experience improves more subsequent visual graph recognition than other forms of training. However, the underlying cognitive mechanism of this HW benefit has been elusive. Building on the 50 years of research on this topic, the present work outlines a theoretical approach to study this mechanism, specifying testable hypotheses that will allow distinguishing between confronting perspectives, i.e., symbolic accounts that hold that perceptual learning and visual analysis underpin the benefit from HW training vs. embodied sensorimotor accounts that argue for motoric representations as inner part of orthographic representations acquired via HW training. From the evidence critically revisited, we concluded that symbolic accounts are parsimonious and could better explain the benefit from HW training when learning visual graphs. The future challenge will be to put at test the detailed predictions presented here, so that the devil has no longer room in this equation.
Letters away from the looking glass: Developmental trajectory of mirrored and rotated letter processing within words
Publication . Fernandes, Tânia; Velasco, Sofia; Leite, Isabel
Discrimination of reversible mirrored letters (e.g., d and b) poses a challenge
when learning to read as it requires overcoming mirror invariance, an evolutionaryold perceptual tendency of processing mirror images as equivalent. The present study
investigated when, in reading development, mirror-image discrimination becomes
automatic during visual word recognition. The developmental trajectory of masked
priming effects was investigated from 2nd to 6th grade and in adults, by manipulating
letter type (nonreversible; reversible) and prime condition (control; identity; mirrored;
rotated). Standardized identity priming increased along reading development. Beginning readers showed mirror invariance during reversible and nonreversible letter
processing. A mirror cost (slower word recognition in mirrored-letter than identity
prime condition) was found by 5th-grade but only for reversible letters. By 6th grade,
orthographic processing was no longer captive of mirror invariance. A multiple linear
regression showed that letter representations, but not phonological processes or age,
were a reliable predictor of the rise of mirror-image discrimination in 2nd–4th-graders.
The present results suggest a protracted development of automatic mirror-image discrimination during orthographic processing, contingent upon the quality of abstract
letter representations.
Editorial: Multisensory integration as a pathway to neural specialization for print in typical and dyslexic readers across writing systems
Publication . Araújo, Susana; Maurer, Urs; Fernandes, Tânia
From Perugino to Picasso revisited: Electrophysiological responses to faces in paintings from different art styles
Publication . Ventura, Paulo; Pascual, Mariona; Cruz, F.; Araújo, Susana
Behavioral research (Ventura, et al., 2023) suggested that pictorial representations of faces varying along a
realism-distortion spectrum elicit holistic processing as natural faces. Whether holistic face neural responses are
engaged similarly remains, however, underexplored. In the present study, we evaluated the neural correlates of
naturalist and artistic face processing, by exploring electrophysiological responses to faces in photographs versus
in four major painting styles. The N170 response to faces in photographs was indistinguishable from that elicited
by faces in the renaissance art style (depicting the most realistic faces), whilst both categories elicited larger
N170 than faces in other art styles (post-impressionism, expressionism, and cubism), with a gradation in brain
activity. The present evidence suggest that visual processing may become finer grained the more the realistic
nature of the face. Despite behavioral equivalence, the neural mechanisms for holistic processing of natural faces
and faces in diverse art styles are not equivalent.
Cognitive subtyping of university students with dyslexia in a semi-transparent orthography: what can weaknesses and strengths tell us about compensation?
Publication . Faísca, Luís; Reis, Alexandra; Araújo, Susana
Developmental dyslexia is characterized
by a profile of reading- and writing-related difficulties
which stands out as a core deficit in phonological
processing. Although these difficulties seem to persist
into adulthood, it is still an open question to what
extent they are immune, or not, to the extensive
training resulting from extended schooling. The main
objective of this study was to explore the heterogeneity of the cognitive profile of European Portuguese
highly literate adults with dyslexia. Thirty-one university students diagnosed with dyslexia during
childhood and their matched skilled adult control
readers were assessed through a battery of reading and
cognitive tests. A cluster analysis of data obtained
from participants with dyslexia identified two profile
groups. While Cluster 1 grouped participants with
clear phonological deficits and concomitant reading
difficulties, Cluster 2 showed better performance on
most of the core skills associated with reading and also
better general cognitive abilities, suggesting that these
dyslexic readers have partially resolved their phonological constraints along the development, probably
due to the systematic exposure to reading and writing.
As Cluster 2 matched typical readers in general
cognitive abilities, it might also be the case that
cognitive strengths associated with general intelligence worked as protective factors, helping students to
strategically compensate for their reading difficulties.
Overall, these results suggest that both mechanisms–
partial remediation of the core phonological deficit
and adoption of compensatory strategies supported by
general cognitive skills–might contribute together to
improving the reading performance of highly literate
adults with dyslexia.
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Entidade financiadora
Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia
Programa de financiamento
3599-PPCDT
Número da atribuição
PTDC/PSI-GER/3281/2020