Page No,240-246
Priyanka Tiwari, Tarun Mishra, Tara Singh Anju L. Singh
Trayambak Tiwari & Singh I.L. Vasant Kanya Mahavidyalaya
Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi Varanasi
Visual-spatial attention allows individual to select specific regions of the visual field for
preferential processing which facilitates the speed and quality of visual processing. Yet,
reading literature reports the dichotomous view in regards of its utility in word recognition.
Certain studies indicate it to be necessary preliminary to word reading whereas others
indicate of it being not a prerequisite for word reading. Therefore, the current study
aimed to study the effect of attention allocation through spatial cue manipulations using
Posner’s Cuing Paradigm. It was hypothesized that participants would perform better
for words as compared to non-words in terms of shorter processing time and better
accuracy. Also, valid cue conditions would take lower reaction time with higher accuracy
as compared to invalid and no cue conditions. Twenty participants within the age range
from 18 to 29 years (M= 22.27, SD= 03.34) of Banaras Hindu University took part in
the study. A 2 (Letter string: word, non-word) × 3 (Cue type: valid, neutral, no cue) with
repeated measure on all the factors was used. Results revealed the importance of cue
and attention allocation on visual string recognition as it affected the processing time
and accuracy of the stimuli. Therefore, the hypotheses were accepted. Further, the
findings have been discussed in the light of feature analytic model of word reading
.