---
abstract: "The legibility of the letters in the Latin alphabet has been measured numerous times since the beginning of\r\nexperimental psychology. To identify the theoretical mechanisms attributed to letter identification, we report\r\na comprehensive review of literature, spanning more than a century. This review revealed that identification\r\naccuracy has frequently been attributed to a subset of three common sources: perceivability, bias, and simi-\r\nlarity. However, simultaneous estimates of these values have rarely (if ever) been performed. We present the\r\nresults of two new experiments which allow for the simultaneous estimation of these factors, and examine\r\nhow the shape of a visual mask impacts each of them, as inferred through a new statistical model. Results showed that the shape and identity of the mask impacted the inferred perceivability, bias, and similarity space of a letter set, but that there were aspects of similarity that were robust to the choice of mask. The results illustrate how the psychological concepts of perceivability, bias, and similarity can be estimated simultaneously, and how each make powerful contributions to visual letter identification."
altloc: []
chapter: ~
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creators_id:
- shanem@mtu.edu
- ctw@cogsci.info
creators_name:
- family: Mueller
given: Shane T.
honourific: ''
lineage: ''
- family: Weidemann
given: Christoph T.
honourific: ''
lineage: ''
date: 2012
date_type: published
datestamp: 2011-12-28 02:58:15
department: ~
dir: disk0/00/00/78/47
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editors_id: []
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eprint_status: archive
eprintid: 7847
fileinfo: application/pdf;http://cogprints.org/7847/1/MuellerWeidemann2012.pdf
full_text_status: public
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keywords: ~
lastmod: 2011-12-28 02:58:15
latitude: ~
longitude: ~
metadata_visibility: show
note: ~
number: ~
pagerange: 19-37
pubdom: TRUE
publication: Acta Psychologica
publisher: ~
refereed: TRUE
referencetext: ~
relation_type: []
relation_uri: []
reportno: ~
rev_number: 6
series: ~
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status_changed: 2011-12-28 02:58:15
subjects:
- cog-psy
succeeds: ~
suggestions: ~
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thesistype: ~
title: 'Alphabetic Letter Identification: Effects of perceivability, similarity, and bias'
type: journalp
userid: 6246
volume: 139