Department of Psychology, Arizona State University, Box 871104, Tempe, AZ, 85287-1104, USA,
Psychon Bull Rev. 2013 Dec;20(6):1319-26. doi: 10.3758/s13423-013-0435-y.
A dramatic perceptual asymmetry occurs when handwritten words are rotated 90 ° in either direction. Those rotated in a direction consistent with their natural tilt (typically clockwise) become much more difficult to recognize, relative to those rotated in the opposite direction. In Experiment 1, we compared computer-printed and handwritten words, all equated for degrees of leftward and rightward tilt, and verified the phenomenon: The effect of rotation was far larger for cursive words, especially when they were rotated in a tilt-consistent direction. In Experiment 2, we replicated this pattern with all items being presented in visual noise. In both experiments, word frequency effects were larger for computer-printed words and did not interact with rotation. The results suggest that handwritten word perception requires greater configural processing, relative to computer print, because handwritten letters are variable and ambiguous. When words are rotated, configural processing suffers, particularly when rotation exaggerates the natural tilt. Our account is similar to theories of the "Thatcher illusion," wherein face inversion disrupts holistic processing. Together, the findings suggest that configural, word-level processing automatically increases when people read handwriting, as letter-level processing becomes less reliable.
当手写文字顺时针或逆时针旋转 90 度时，会出现明显的感知不对称。与逆时针旋转的文字相比，顺时针旋转的文字更难识别。在实验 1 中，我们比较了计算机打印和手写文字，所有文字的左右倾斜程度都相同，并验证了这一现象：对于草书文字，尤其是当它们顺时针旋转时，旋转的效果要大得多。在实验 2 中，我们在视觉噪声中复制了这种模式。在这两个实验中，计算机打印文字的词频效应更大，且不受旋转的影响。结果表明，手写文字感知需要比计算机打印更多的整体处理，因为手写字母是可变的且模糊的。当文字旋转时，整体处理会受到影响，尤其是当旋转夸大了自然倾斜时。我们的解释类似于“撒切尔错觉”理论，其中面部反转会破坏整体处理。总之，这些发现表明，当人们阅读手写文字时，由于字母级处理变得不可靠，字形、单词级处理会自动增加。
