http://mriquestions.com/uploads/3/4/5/7/34572113/language_review1-s2.0-s1053811912004703-main.pdf

A review and synthesis of the first 20 years of PET and fMRI studies of heard speech, spoken language and reading

https://www.cs.princeton.edu/courses/archive/spr08/cos598B/Readings/AhissarHochstein_TCS2004.pdf

The Reverse Hierarchy Theory of Visual Perceptual Learning

It is widely agreed that the human face is processed differently from other objects. However there is a lack of consensus on what is meant by a wide array of terms used to describe this “special” face processing (e.g. holistic and configural) and the perceptually relevant information within a face (e.g. relational properties and configuration). This paper will review existing models of holistic/configural processing, discuss how they differ from one another conceptually and review the wide variety of measures used to tap into these concepts. In general we favour a model where holistic processing of a face includes some or all of the inter-relations between features and has separate coding for features. However, some aspects of the model remain unclear. We propose the use of moving faces as a way of clarifying what types of information are included in the holistic representation of a face.

/pdf/a-review-and-clarification-of-the-terms-holistic-configural-gung7nbrdg.pdf

A Review and Clarification of the Terms “holistic,” “configural,” and “relational” in the Face Perception Literature

We summarize the various strands of research on peripheral vision and relate them to theories of form perception. After a historical overview, we describe quantifications of the cortical magnification hypothesis, including an extension of Schwartz's cortical mapping function. The merits of this concept are considered across a wide range of psychophysical tasks, followed by a discussion of its limitations and the need for non-spatial scaling. We also review the eccentricity dependence of other low-level functions including reaction time, temporal resolution, and spatial summation, as well as perimetric methods. A central topic is then the recognition of characters in peripheral vision, both at low and high levels of contrast, and the impact of surrounding contours known as crowding. We demonstrate how Bouma's law, specifying the critical distance for the onset of crowding, can be stated in terms of the retinocortical mapping. The recognition of more complex stimuli, like textures, faces, and scenes, reveals a substantial impact of mid-level vision and cognitive factors. We further consider eccentricity-dependent limitations of learning, both at the level of perceptual learning and pattern category learning. Generic limitations of extrafoveal vision are observed for the latter in categorization tasks involving multiple stimulus classes. Finally, models of peripheral form vision are discussed. We report that peripheral vision is limited with regard to pattern categorization by a distinctly lower representational complexity and processing speed. Taken together, the limitations of cognitive processing in peripheral vision appear to be as significant as those imposed on low-level functions and by way of crowding.

Peripheral vision and pattern recognition: a review.

Hierarchical Coding of Letter Strings in the Ventral Stream: Dissecting the Inner Organization of the Visual Word-Form System

Compared with other objects, faces are processed more holistically and with a larger reliance on configural information. Such hallmarks of face processing can also be found for nonface objects as people develop expertise with them. Is this specifically a result of expertise individuating objects, or would any type of prolonged intensive experience with objects be sufficient? Two groups of participants were trained with artificial objects (Ziggerins). One group learned to rapidly individuate Ziggerins (i.e., subordinate-level training). The other group learned rapid, sequential categorizations at the basic level. Individuation experts showed a selective improvement at the subordinate level and an increase in holistic processing. Categorization experts improved only at the basic level, showing no changes in holistic processing. Attentive exposure to objects in a difficult training regimen is not sufficient to produce facelike expertise. Rather, qualitatively different types of expertise with objects of a given geometry can arise depending on the type of training.

/pdf/conditions-for-facelike-expertise-with-objects-becoming-a-2xk41v09xs.pdf

Conditions for Facelike Expertise With Objects: Becoming a Ziggerin Expert—but Which Type?

One would expect that a lifetime of experience recognizing letters would have an important influence on the visual system. Surprisingly, there is limited evidence of a specific neural response to letters over visual control stimuli. We measured brain activation during a sequential matching task using isolated characters (Roman letters, digits, and Chinese characters) and strings of characters. We localized the visual word form area (VWFA) by contrasting the response to pseudowords against that for letter strings, but this region did not show any other sign of visual specialization for letters. In addition, a left fusiform area posterior to the VWFA was selective for letter strings, whereas a more anterior left fusiform region showed selectivity for single letters. The results of different analyses using both large regions of interest and inspections of individual patterns of response reveal a dissociation between selectivity for letter strings and selectivity for single letters. The results suggest that reading experience fine-tunes visual representations at different levels of processing. An important conclusion is that the processing of nonpronounceable letter strings cannot be assumed to be equivalent to single-letter perception.

/pdf/letter-processing-in-the-visual-system-different-activation-1qiv9atd3f.pdf

Letter processing in the visual system: Different activation patterns for single letters and strings

http://catlab.psy.vanderbilt.edu/wp-content/uploads/PWG-TICS2004.pdf

Computational approaches to the development of perceptual expertise

Heavy media multitaskers have been found to perform poorly in certain cognitive tasks involving task switching, selective attention, and working memory. An account for this is that with a breadth-biased style of cognitive control, multitaskers tend to pay attention to various information available in the environment, without sufficient focus on the information most relevant to the task at hand. This cognitive style, however, may not cause a general deficit in all kinds of tasks. We tested the hypothesis that heavy media multitaskers would perform better in a multisensory integration task than would others, due to their extensive experience in integrating information from different modalities. Sixty-three participants filled out a questionnaire about their media usage and completed a visual search task with and without synchronous tones (pip-and-pop paradigm). It was found that a higher degree of media multitasking was correlated with better multisensory integration. The fact that heavy media multitaskers are not deficient in all kinds of cognitive tasks suggests that media multitasking does not always hurt.

/pdf/does-media-multitasking-always-hurt-a-positive-correlation-qxwhr44484.pdf

Does media multitasking always hurt? A positive correlation between multitasking and multisensory integration

Expertise with print is likely to optimize visual processes for recognizing characters of a familiar writing system. Although brain activations have been identified for words and letter strings in contrast with other stimuli, relatively little work has focused on the neural basis of single-letter perception. English readers and Chinese-English bilinguals participated in an ERP study and performed a 1-back identity judgment on Roman letters, Chinese characters, pseudofonts, and their string versions. The Chinese-English bilinguals showed an enhanced N170 for both Roman letters and Chinese characters relative to pseudofonts. For the non-Chinese readers, the N170 amplitude was larger for Roman letters relative to Chinese characters and pseudofonts. Our results suggest that changes in relatively early visual processes underlie expert letter perception.

/pdf/an-early-electrophysiological-response-associated-with-16a9ziuj62.pdf

Alan C.-N. Wong

Papers

Conditions for Facelike Expertise With Objects: Becoming a Ziggerin Expert—but Which Type?

Letter processing in the visual system: Different activation patterns for single letters and strings

Computational approaches to the development of perceptual expertise

Does media multitasking always hurt? A positive correlation between multitasking and multisensory integration

An early electrophysiological response associated with expertise in letter perception