Interference from adjacent words in visual word recognition

Dzan Zelihic; Stefania Kyriakidou; Laoura Ziaka; Bob McMurray; Athanassios Protopapas

doi:10.1016/j.jml.2026.104761

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Interference from adjacent words in visual word recognition

Journal article

Open access

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Interference from adjacent words in visual word recognition

Dzan Zelihic, Stefania Kyriakidou, Laoura Ziaka, Bob McMurray and Athanassios Protopapas

Journal of memory and language, Vol.149, 104761

08/2026

DOI: 10.1016/j.jml.2026.104761

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Abstract

Recent findings show that lexical activation is slower when words are surrounded by other words, as they always are in natural reading. Here we focus on the proposal that this is due to direct interference from adjacent words that are processed in parallel. In three experiments using a flanked masked visual word adaptation of the visual world paradigm with adult skilled readers, we probed the spatial conditions for interference. Target words were flashed at fixation for 75 ms flanked by other words before being masked; we studied gaze shifts to the image (out of four displayed) corresponding to the target. We found that interference increases with proximity and is asymmetric (stronger from the right side). In the third experiment we included an image for one of the flanker words and we obtained direct evidence for lexical activation of the right-side flanker. Intriguingly, the strong asymmetry of lexical activation stands in contrast to a much weaker asymmetry in overall interference, indicating that different levels of representation are differentially involved in the online interactions among adjacent words. In all, we take our findings to constitute strong evidence for distributed attention around fixation differentially affecting diverse word processing stages, calling for a reconsideration of word recognition models that posit independent processing of individual words. The findings also suggest that the masked flanked visual word visual world paradigm is relevant for the study of attentional allocation during reading.

Visual word recognition

Visual world paradigm

Interference

Flankers

Parallel

Details

Title: Subtitle: Interference from adjacent words in visual word recognition
Creators: Dzan Zelihic
Stefania Kyriakidou
Laoura Ziaka
Bob McMurray
Athanassios Protopapas
Resource Type: Journal article
Publication Details: Journal of memory and language, Vol.149, 104761
DOI: 10.1016/j.jml.2026.104761
ISSN: 0749-596X
eISSN: 1096-0821
Publisher: Elsevier
Grant note: Research Council of Norway, FINNUT Grant: 301519 Research Council of Norway, Centres of Excellence Grant: 331640
This work was partially supported by The Research Council of Norway, FINNUT Grant 301519. In addition, Athanassios Protopapas is partially supported by The Research Council of Norway, Centres of Excellence Grant 331640.
Language: English
Electronic publication date: 03/27/2026
Date published: 08/2026
Academic Unit: Communication Sciences and Disorders; Languages, Linguistics, Literatures, and Cultures ; Psychological and Brain Sciences; Iowa Neuroscience Institute; Otolaryngology
Record Identifier: 9985149410302771

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