Linguistics Colloquium: Orna Peleg

Orna Peleg, Tel Aviv University

Title: Orthographic, phonological and semantic dynamics during linguistic and non-linguistic tasks

Abstract: Interactive “triangle” models of reading assume a bidirectional flow of activation between orthographic, phonological, and semantic codes. We aimed to expand the scope of this model in two important ways. First, we investigated how orthographic, phonological, and semantic codes interact, not only during the perception of printed words (a linguistic task), but also during the perception of pictures (a non-linguistic task). Results indicate that orthographic, phonological and, semantic representations are fully interconnected, such that orthographic representations (in the case of printed words) automatically activate their corresponding phonological and semantic representations, and semantic representations (in the case of pictures) automatically activate their corresponding phonological and orthographic representations. Second, given that both hemispheres can extract meaning from print, we investigated how orthographic, phonological, and semantic codes interact both within and between the two cerebral hemispheres. Results indicate that these three codes are fully interconnected in the left hemisphere, while there are no direct connections between orthography and phonology in the right hemisphere. Furthermore, although both hemispheres can extract meaning from print, normal word reading is controlled by the left hemisphere. The implications of these results for models of reading, models of speech production, and models of hemispheric differences in word meaning processing will be discussed.

Building 404, Room 101