The true colors of reading: Literacy enhances lexical-semantic processing in rapid automatized and discrete object naming

IF 2.8 1区心理学 Q1 PSYCHOLOGY, EXPERIMENTAL

Cognition Pub Date : 2025-05-07 DOI:10.1016/j.cognition.2025.106172

Susana Araújo , Tânia Fernandes , Margarida Cipriano , Laura Mealha , Catarina Silva-Nunes , Falk Huettig

{"title":"The true colors of reading: Literacy enhances lexical-semantic processing in rapid automatized and discrete object naming","authors":"Susana Araújo , Tânia Fernandes , Margarida Cipriano , Laura Mealha , Catarina Silva-Nunes , Falk Huettig","doi":"10.1016/j.cognition.2025.106172","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Semantic knowledge is a defining property of human cognition, profoundly influenced by cultural experiences. In this study, we investigated whether literacy enhances lexical-semantic processing independently of schooling. Three groups of neurotypical adults - unschooled illiterates, unschooled ex-illiterates, and schooled literates - from the same residential and socioeconomic background in Portugal were tested on serial rapid automatized naming (RAN) and on discrete naming of everyday objects (concrete concepts) and basic color patches (abstract concepts). The performance of readers, whether schooled literate or unschooled ex-illiterate, was not affected by stimulus category, whereas illiterates were much slower on color than object naming, irrespective of task. This naming advantage promoted by literacy was not significantly mediated by vocabulary size. We conclude that literacy per se, regardless of schooling, contributes to faster naming of depicted concepts, particularly those of more abstract categories. Our findings provide further evidence that literacy influences cognition beyond the mere accumulation of knowledge: Literacy enhances the quality and efficiency of lexical-semantic representations and processing.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48455,"journal":{"name":"Cognition","volume":"262 ","pages":"Article 106172"},"PeriodicalIF":2.8000,"publicationDate":"2025-05-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Cognition","FirstCategoryId":"102","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S001002772500112X","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"PSYCHOLOGY, EXPERIMENTAL","Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Abstract

Semantic knowledge is a defining property of human cognition, profoundly influenced by cultural experiences. In this study, we investigated whether literacy enhances lexical-semantic processing independently of schooling. Three groups of neurotypical adults - unschooled illiterates, unschooled ex-illiterates, and schooled literates - from the same residential and socioeconomic background in Portugal were tested on serial rapid automatized naming (RAN) and on discrete naming of everyday objects (concrete concepts) and basic color patches (abstract concepts). The performance of readers, whether schooled literate or unschooled ex-illiterate, was not affected by stimulus category, whereas illiterates were much slower on color than object naming, irrespective of task. This naming advantage promoted by literacy was not significantly mediated by vocabulary size. We conclude that literacy per se, regardless of schooling, contributes to faster naming of depicted concepts, particularly those of more abstract categories. Our findings provide further evidence that literacy influences cognition beyond the mere accumulation of knowledge: Literacy enhances the quality and efficiency of lexical-semantic representations and processing.

查看原文本刊更多论文

阅读的本色：读写能力增强了快速自动化和离散对象命名的词汇语义处理

语义知识是人类认知的一个决定性属性，它深受文化经验的影响。在本研究中，我们调查了读写能力是否能独立于学校教育而促进词汇语义加工。来自葡萄牙相同居住和社会经济背景的三组神经正常成年人——未受过教育的文盲、未受过教育的前文盲和受过教育的文盲——进行了连续快速自动化命名（RAN）和日常物品（具体概念）和基本色块（抽象概念）的离散命名测试。无论是受过教育的文盲还是未受过教育的前文盲，读者的表现都不受刺激类别的影响，而文盲在任何任务下，对颜色的命名都比物体命名慢得多。识字所促进的命名优势不受词汇量的影响。我们得出的结论是，无论受教育程度如何，识字本身都有助于更快地命名所描述的概念，特别是那些更抽象的类别。我们的研究结果进一步证明，读写能力对认知的影响超越了单纯的知识积累：读写能力提高了词汇语义表征和处理的质量和效率。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

求助全文

约1分钟内获得全文求助全文

来源期刊

Cognition PSYCHOLOGY, EXPERIMENTAL-

CiteScore

6.40

自引率

5.90%

发文量

283

期刊介绍： Cognition is an international journal that publishes theoretical and experimental papers on the study of the mind. It covers a wide variety of subjects concerning all the different aspects of cognition, ranging from biological and experimental studies to formal analysis. Contributions from the fields of psychology, neuroscience, linguistics, computer science, mathematics, ethology and philosophy are welcome in this journal provided that they have some bearing on the functioning of the mind. In addition, the journal serves as a forum for discussion of social and political aspects of cognitive science.