Sami Boudelaa, Sana Tibi, Noor Alhashmi, Manuel Perea
{"title":"Transposed-letter priming effects in Arabic-English bilinguals: shifting toward a default orthographic processing mode","authors":"Sami Boudelaa, Sana Tibi, Noor Alhashmi, Manuel Perea","doi":"10.1017/s1366728925100503","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p>How does bilingualism affect orthographic processing across languages with different structures? This study investigates masked transposed-letter (TL) priming in Arabic-English bilinguals, comparing Arabic (a Semitic language with rigid orthography and weak TL effects) with English (an Indo-European language with flexible letter coding and strong TL effects). Using lexical decision tasks, we tested whether exposure to English enhances letter-coding flexibility in Arabic. Results showed robust TL priming in both languages, indicating that bilingual experience with English modifies Arabic orthographic processing, traditionally seen as resistant to letter transpositions. These findings suggest that bilingual orthographic processing is adaptable, with language-specific exposure reshaping letter-position encoding and enabling flexible word recognition across languages.</p>","PeriodicalId":8758,"journal":{"name":"Bilingualism: Language and Cognition","volume":"35 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.6000,"publicationDate":"2025-09-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Bilingualism: Language and Cognition","FirstCategoryId":"98","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s1366728925100503","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"LINGUISTICS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
How does bilingualism affect orthographic processing across languages with different structures? This study investigates masked transposed-letter (TL) priming in Arabic-English bilinguals, comparing Arabic (a Semitic language with rigid orthography and weak TL effects) with English (an Indo-European language with flexible letter coding and strong TL effects). Using lexical decision tasks, we tested whether exposure to English enhances letter-coding flexibility in Arabic. Results showed robust TL priming in both languages, indicating that bilingual experience with English modifies Arabic orthographic processing, traditionally seen as resistant to letter transpositions. These findings suggest that bilingual orthographic processing is adaptable, with language-specific exposure reshaping letter-position encoding and enabling flexible word recognition across languages.