Phonological and orthographic processing of Hebrew words: Electrophysiological aspects

Brain activity among 15 male, college-level, normal readers in Israel was e xamined during phonological and orthographic word-recognition tasks. Both e lectrophysiological (event-related potentials, or ERPs) and behavioral meas ures were obtained. Data indicated that (a) behavioral accuracy was almost perfect for all the experimental tasks, and (b) although P200 and N400 ERP components were elicited in the experimental tasks, the latencies of those components were significantly longer and their amplitudes significantly hig her in the phonological task. Variations in vowel information had no effect on word recognition in either type of task. The results suggest that among skilled readers of Hebrew, phonological processing during word recognition may be more effortful and may demand greater cognitive resources than orth ographic processing. Furthermore, the additional phonological information r epresented in vowels appears to contribute little to word recognition in th is population. These findings support earlier research on skilled reading i n Hebrew as well as current theoretical models of reading.