Isabel Leite
University of Évora
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Featured researches published by Isabel Leite.
Frontiers in Psychology | 2017
Paulo Ventura; Tânia Fernandes; Isabel Leite; Vítor B. Almeida; Inês Casqueiro; Alan C.-N. Wong
Prior studies have shown that words show a composite effect: When readers perform a same-different matching task on a target-part of a word, performance is affected by the irrelevant part, whose influence is severely reduced when the two parts are misaligned. However, the locus of this word composite effect is largely unknown. To enlighten it, in two experiments, Portuguese readers performed the composite task on letter strings: in Experiment 1, in written words varying in surface features (between-participants: courier, notera, alternating-cAsE), and in Experiment 2 in pseudowords. The word composite effect, signaled by a significant interaction between alignment of the two word parts and congruence between parts was found in the three conditions of Experiment 1, being unaffected by NoVeLtY of the configuration or by handwritten form. This effect seems to have a lexical locus, given that in Experiment 2 only the main effect of congruence between parts was significant and was not modulated by alignment. Indeed, the cross-experiment analysis showed that words presented stronger congruence effects than pseudowords only in the aligned condition, because when misaligned the whole lexical item configuration was disrupted. Therefore, the word composite effect strongly depends on abstract lexical representations, as it is unaffected by surface features and is specific to lexical items.
Visual Cognition | 2018
Paulo Ventura; Joana C. Carmo; Cristiane Souza; Fábio Martins; Isabel Leite; Sandra Pinho; Bernardo Barahona-Correa; Carlos N. Filipe
ABSTRACT Are face recognition difficulties in Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) related to impaired holistic processing? Gauthier et al. [Gauthier, I., Klaiman, C., & Schultz, R. T. (2009). Face composite effects reveal abnormal face processing in Autism spectrum disorders. Vision Research, 49, 470–478. doi:10.1016/j.visres.2008.12.007] used the face composite task in adolescents with autism and found a congruency effect that was not modulated by alignment, a result which was interpreted as reflecting qualitatively different face processing mechanisms. In the present study we tested adults with ASD in a composite face task where presentation times were manipulated and further explored whether these participants were sensitive to holistic information in faces using a new version of the composite task: VHFPT 2.0 (The Vanderbilt Holistic Face Processing Test 2.0). Results suggest that adults with ASD process faces holistically and that their facial identity processing abilities are qualitatively similar and as efficient as that of typical adults. The difference between the results of Gauthier et al. (2009) with adolescents and the results with adults here reported are interpreted in terms of a developmental delay.
Laterality: Asymmetries of Body, Brain and Cognition | 2018
Paulo Ventura; João Delgado; Miguel Ferreira; António Farinha-Fernandes; José Guerreiro; Bruno Faustino; Isabel Leite; Alan C.-N. Wong
ABSTRACT Holistic processing has been regarded as a hallmark of face perception, indicating the automatic and obligatory tendency of the visual system to process all face parts as a perceptual unit rather than in isolation. Studies involving lateralized stimulus presentation suggest that the right hemisphere dominates holistic face processing. Holistic processing can also be shown with other categories such as words and thus it is not specific to faces or face-like expertize. Here, we used divided visual field presentation to investigate the possibly different contributions of the two hemispheres for holistic word processing. Observers performed same/different judgment on the cued parts of two sequentially presented words in the complete composite paradigm. Our data indicate a right hemisphere specialization for holistic word processing. Thus, these markers of expert object recognition are domain general.
Acta Psychologica | 2018
Paulo Ventura; Isabel Leite; Tânia Fernandes
The composite paradigm is widely used to quantify holistic processing (HP) of faces: participants perform a sequential same-different task on one half (e.g., top) of a test-face relative to the corresponding half of a study-face. There is, however, debate regarding the appropriate design in this task. In the partial design, the irrelevant halves (e.g., bottom) of test- and study-faces are always different; an alignment effect indexes HP. In the complete design, besides alignment, congruency between the irrelevant and critical halves of the test-face is manipulated regarding the same/different response status of the study-face. The HP indexed in the complete design does not confound congruency and alignment and has good construct and convergent validities. De Heering, Houthuys, & Rossion (2007) argued that HP is mature as early as 4-year-olds but employed the partial design. Here we revisit this claim, testing four groups of 4- to 9/10 year-old children and two groups of adults. We found evidence of HP only from 6-year-olds on when considering the complete design, whereas significant alignment effects were found in the index adopted in the partial design already in 4-year-olds but which we demonstrate that reflects other factors besides HP, including response bias associated with congruency.
Child Development | 2016
Tânia Fernandes; Isabel Leite; Régine Kolinsky
Archive | 2006
Isabel Leite; Tânia Fernandes; Luísa Araújo; Luís Querido; São Luís Castro; Paulo Ventura; Jose Morais
Archive | 2013
Jose Morais; Isabel Leite; Régine Kolinsky
Journal of Experimental Child Psychology | 2017
Tânia Fernandes; Isabel Leite
Reading and Writing | 2018
Régine Kolinsky; Isabel Leite; Cristina Carvalho; Ana Franco; Jose Morais
Archive | 2018
Régine Kolinsky; Cristina Carvalho; Isabel Leite; Ana Franco; Jose Morais; Dolores Perin