The Border Letter Advantage: Effects of Position in Visual Word Recognition in Arabic Data for "The Border Letter Advantage: Effects of Position in Visual Word Recognition in Arabic"

This study investigates whether the first letter advantage observed in Latin scripts extends to Arabic, a right-to-left, semi-cursive script with unique orthographic and morphological features. Previous research has demonstrated a robust first letter advantage in word recognition, where initial letters receive preferential processing. However, Arabic’s script characteristics, such as visually distinct final letters and its templatic root-based morphology, raise the possibility that final letters may also exhibit privileged processing. In a forced-choice word recognition task with 43 native Arabic speakers, participants identified briefly presented words with single letter substitutions at different positions. Results revealed a U-shaped pattern in reaction times and accuracy, with both the initial and final letters showing enhanced processing, unlike the linear trend typically observed in Latin scripts. These findings suggest that letter recognition in Arabic is influenced by script-specific features, with both the first and final letters playing a key role in word recognition. This challenges the universality of the first letter advantage and highlights the importance of script morphology and visual cues in reading processes across different writing systems.本研究旨在探究拉丁语系中已被观测到的首字母优势（first letter advantage）是否适用于阿拉伯语——这是一种具备独特正字法与形态学特征的从右至左书写的半草书文字系统。过往研究已在词汇识别领域证实了稳健的首字母优势，即单词的首字母会获得优先加工处理。然而，阿拉伯语的书写特征——比如视觉辨识度迥异的尾字母，以及其基于模板词根的形态学结构——使得尾字母同样可能呈现出优势加工的特性。本研究招募43名以阿拉伯语为母语的受试者，开展了一项词汇识别迫选任务：受试者需要对短暂呈现的、不同位置存在单字母替换的单词进行辨识。实验结果显示，受试者的反应时与准确率呈现出U型分布模式：与拉丁语系中常见的线性趋势不同，阿拉伯语词汇的首字母与尾字母均展现出更强的加工优势。上述结果表明，阿拉伯语中的字母识别过程受书写系统专属特征的影响，首字母与尾字母均在词汇识别中发挥关键作用。这一发现挑战了首字母优势的普适性，并凸显了书写系统形态学特征与视觉线索在不同文字系统的阅读过程中的重要性。