Autor(es): Fernandes, Tânia ; Velasco, Sofia ; Leite, Isabel
Data: 2025
Identificador Persistente: http://hdl.handle.net/10174/38194
Origem: Repositório Científico da Universidade de Évora
Assunto(s): letter representation; masked priming; mirror images; orthographic processing; reading development; visual word recognition
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.
