Peer Review History
| Original SubmissionNovember 9, 2021 |
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PONE-D-21-35699Effects of horizontal displacement and inter-character spacing on transposed-character effects in same-different matchingPLOS ONE Dear Dr. Massol, Thank you for submitting your manuscript to PlosOne. I have now received two reviews from experts in your field. As you will see from their comments below, both reviewers saw considerable merit in your paper, but both have also made some very constructive suggestions for revision. At this stage, I am inviting you to submit a revised version of the paper for consideration. In doing so, please carefully address each of the reviewers' comments and outline the changes you have made in a cover letter to me. Please submit your revised manuscript by Feb 03 2022 11:59PM. If you will need more time than this to complete your revisions, please reply to this message or contact the journal office at plosone@plos.org. When you're ready to submit your revision, log on to https://www.editorialmanager.com/pone/ and select the 'Submissions Needing Revision' folder to locate your manuscript file. Please include the following items when submitting your revised manuscript:
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Please state what role the funders took in the study. If the funders had no role, please state: "The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript." If this statement is not correct you must amend it as needed. Please include this amended Role of Funder statement in your cover letter; we will change the online submission form on your behalf. [Note: HTML markup is below. Please do not edit.] Reviewers' comments: Reviewer's Responses to Questions Comments to the Author 1. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions? The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented. Reviewer #1: Partly Reviewer #2: Yes ********** 2. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously? Reviewer #1: Yes Reviewer #2: Yes ********** 3. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available? The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified. Reviewer #1: Yes Reviewer #2: Yes ********** 4. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English? PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here. Reviewer #1: Yes Reviewer #2: Yes ********** 5. Review Comments to the Author Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters) Reviewer #1: Review of ms “Effects of horizontal displacement and inter-character spacing on transposed-character effects in same-different matching” This manuscript presents two experiments with a same-different matching task comparing letter strings, digit strings, and symbol strings—at the same time there is also a manipulation of displacement and inter-character spacing. I believe that this is a nice manuscript and it should be published after some revision. This is a list of issues that need some work in a revised version of the manuscript: (1) While not the most important issue, I am not sure the Procedure of Experiment 2 (the online experiment) was identical to that of Experiment 1 (as stated in the ms). Surely, Presentation was not used in Experiment 2, and perhaps some other details also differed. The exact info should be provided. (2) The authors should justify in the Introduction why an SDT analysis was going to be chosen and why—in particular because the RT is typically the gold-standard for dependent variables in most tasks (and in prior experiments). The authors did report the standard RT and accuracy analyses in the Supplemental Materials, but there was no interaction of type of stimulus in the RT analyses of Experiment 1. The accuracy data showed a relatively weak interaction (Letters vs. Symbols in Experiment 1). Also, some writing of the findings would help (i.e., not just reporting the Tables) and this would include an account of the similarities and differences of the transposition effect for the three types of stimuli across the two experiments. (3) I’m not sure ANOVAs are the best method to deal with SDTs. I believe that there are currently packages to run linear mixed effects models on SDT measures. Given that the critical interaction (transposition effect for the three different types of stimuli) was not overwhelming, I think readers would like to know not just whether the interaction is significant, but also whether we can use the data to critically favor one model of serial order over others. (4) Related to the interpretive issues above, I believe that there is some agreement that neither pure “open bigrams” nor pure “positional noise” models alone can offer an account of the data. To cite just one example: Highlighting the critical letters and other perceptual manipulations reduce the transposed-letter effect (e.g, doi: 10.1177/1747021818789876I) and this pattern cannot be easily accommodated by any strong version of the models. Clearly, at some point in processing, the way letters are processed must differ from symbols and digits. (5) The present experiment used an unprimed paradigm that cannot tell apart whether the differences occurred early or late during processing. Using a masked priming procedure applied to the same-different task, García-Orza et al. (2010, doi: 10.1080/17470210903474278) showed that masked transposed-character effects were similar in magnitude for letter strings, symbol strings, and digit strings. If the different paths for these types of stimuli had occurred very early in processing, one would have expected quite different effects for letter strings, symbol strings, and digit strings. This needs to be acknowledged in the manuscript—note that this pattern is more consistent with “position uncertainty” models. (5) Some more information on the characteristics of inter-character spacing would be welcome. Inter-character spacing differs across fonts. Indeed, there are some fonts that mainly differ in their inter-character spacing (e.g., Tahoma vs. Calibri) and this spacing has an influence on word recognition and reading (see the following JEPLMC paper: doi: 10.1037/xlm0000477 and the following JEP:Applied paper 10.1037/xap0000104). Also, in Experiment 2, as it was online, there was no clear control on the distance from the eyes to the screen. Thus, while the findings of inter-character spacing are suggestive (e.g., for further eyetracking work), I believe the authors should be cautious—further, the manipulation was not parametric and one might argue that the pattern of data would be different with a subtler manipulation (i.e., a bit of extra inter-letter spacing may help, but not beyond a certain point, and there are a number of papers published on this issue). (6) Finally, the authors may want to discuss why accuracy (or SDT) is more sensitive to the transposed-character effects across letters, digits and symbols than the response times. Typically, we all assume that these are two sides of the same coin, but probably things are more complicated. In sum, this is a nice manuscript that needs some polishing to strengthen the main arguments. Reviewer #2: SUMMARY ARTICLE PONE-D-21-35699. The authors report two same-different matching experiments in which subjects are exposed to either letter, digit or symbol strings in distinct visual constraint conditions. In Experiment 1, targets are presented either in the center of shifted to the right or left with respect to the reference. In experiment 2, authors tested whether learning was modulated by procedural or declarative memory abilities. Targets are presented centered but with increased inter-character spacing. Signal detection -d´- results point to a greater detection cost in the transposed condition compared to the substitution condition, and although target displacement and inter-character spacing was detrimental for all conditions, a greater detection cost was observed for transposed letter strings than for symbol or digit strings. Findings are interpreted in the light of a two level position coding mechanism (location specific level and location invariant level either generic or specific for letters) I like the topic and the way the article is written. Position coding experiments can shed light on the mechanisms involved in letter and orthographic processing, and on the constraints underlying such processes. I think the article has the potential to provide such information but there are some issues that in my opinion should be tackled before publication. First, description of the model. The authors describe a letter position coding model that accounts for the data observed and that seems suitable to predict and explain the obtained results. However it would be suitable that they also describe other models and explain the differences between their model and other letter position models (although they mention the overlap model, this is not deeply describe, nor the processing mechanisms that account for the different predictions between models). Additionally it would be suitable that the authors explain why this model accounts for an specific position invariant coding mechanism for letters, and how this fact can be linked to the “long term memory orthographic knowledge” claim. Does the model account for this knowledge based coding? Can this specific coding level be accounted in terms of visual experience? This should be better explained in the introduction. Second, better justification of the task selection. The same-different matching task seems appropriate to test letter coding processes but it taps very early perceptual processes. Why was this task was selected? Why not a lexical decision one? Why is this task specifically interesting to measure coding processes? Before experiment 1 the task is described but it deserves a better justification, particularly to contextualize the data and the implications within the process of word recognition and/or reading. Third, consideration upon the limitations of the study and proposals for future studies. Before the last paragraph of the discussion limitations and proposals for future research should be included. The fact that a same-different task was employed provides data about very early perceptual processes involved in word recognition. What can this inform orthographic learning processes? What should be the next step? What could other tasks/ages/studies add to the field of orthographic processing and reading? I think that these issues should be better considered for the article to have a stronger impact. However, I think that if the suggested questions are examined in more depth it could be perfectly published in PONE. ********** 6. PLOS authors have the option to publish the peer review history of their article (what does this mean?). If published, this will include your full peer review and any attached files. If you choose “no”, your identity will remain anonymous but your review may still be made public. Do you want your identity to be public for this peer review? For information about this choice, including consent withdrawal, please see our Privacy Policy. Reviewer #1: No Reviewer #2: No [NOTE: If reviewer comments were submitted as an attachment file, they will be attached to this email and accessible via the submission site. Please log into your account, locate the manuscript record, and check for the action link "View Attachments". If this link does not appear, there are no attachment files.] While revising your submission, please upload your figure files to the Preflight Analysis and Conversion Engine (PACE) digital diagnostic tool, https://pacev2.apexcovantage.com/. PACE helps ensure that figures meet PLOS requirements. To use PACE, you must first register as a user. Registration is free. Then, login and navigate to the UPLOAD tab, where you will find detailed instructions on how to use the tool. If you encounter any issues or have any questions when using PACE, please email PLOS at figures@plos.org. Please note that Supporting Information files do not need this step. |
| Revision 1 |
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Effects of horizontal displacement and inter-character spacing on transposed-character effects in same-different matching PONE-D-21-35699R1 Dear Dr. Massol, We’re pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been judged scientifically suitable for publication and will be formally accepted for publication once it meets all outstanding technical requirements. Within one week, you’ll receive an e-mail detailing the required amendments. When these have been addressed, you’ll receive a formal acceptance letter and your manuscript will be scheduled for publication. An invoice for payment will follow shortly after the formal acceptance. To ensure an efficient process, please log into Editorial Manager at http://www.editorialmanager.com/pone/, click the 'Update My Information' link at the top of the page, and double check that your user information is up-to-date. If you have any billing related questions, please contact our Author Billing department directly at authorbilling@plos.org. If your institution or institutions have a press office, please notify them about your upcoming paper to help maximize its impact. If they’ll be preparing press materials, please inform our press team as soon as possible -- no later than 48 hours after receiving the formal acceptance. Your manuscript will remain under strict press embargo until 2 pm Eastern Time on the date of publication. For more information, please contact onepress@plos.org. Kind regards, Francesca Peressotti, Ph.D Academic Editor PLOS ONE Additional Editor Comments (optional): Dear Authors, It is a pleasure to accept your manuscript entitled "Effects of horizontal displacement and inter-character spacing on transposed-character effects in same-different matching?" in its current form for publication in PlosOne. The comments of the reviewers who reviewed your manuscript are included at the foot of this letter. Reviewer 1 helpfully pointed out a couple of possible typos / remaining small points of clarification that you may wish to address as you prepare the manuscript to be publication ready. Thank you for your fine contribution. Best whishes Francesca Reviewers' comments: Reviewer's Responses to Questions Comments to the Author 1. If the authors have adequately addressed your comments raised in a previous round of review and you feel that this manuscript is now acceptable for publication, you may indicate that here to bypass the “Comments to the Author” section, enter your conflict of interest statement in the “Confidential to Editor” section, and submit your "Accept" recommendation. Reviewer #1: All comments have been addressed Reviewer #2: All comments have been addressed ********** 2. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions? The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented. Reviewer #1: Yes Reviewer #2: Yes ********** 3. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously? Reviewer #1: Yes Reviewer #2: Yes ********** 4. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available? The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified. Reviewer #1: Yes Reviewer #2: Yes ********** 5. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English? PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here. Reviewer #1: Yes Reviewer #2: Yes ********** 6. Review Comments to the Author Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters) Reviewer #1: I think the authors did a very good job. I only have a couple of formal comments for the “proofing” stage: (1) the reference of the R program was from 2018, but surely these analyses were conducted in 2021 or so, so I would update the year; (2) some of the references do not follow the rules of Plos One—this should be very easy to fix. Reviewer #2: Te authors have adequately responded to all the queries made in the review. My greatest concerns were related to the justification of the model's claims regarding coarse grained coding due to experience with letters, and of the task used to measure the processes under interest. This two issues are better focused now, and the paper is much better articulated. ********** 7. PLOS authors have the option to publish the peer review history of their article (what does this mean?). If published, this will include your full peer review and any attached files. If you choose “no”, your identity will remain anonymous but your review may still be made public. Do you want your identity to be public for this peer review? For information about this choice, including consent withdrawal, please see our Privacy Policy. Reviewer #1: No Reviewer #2: No |
| Formally Accepted |
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PONE-D-21-35699R1 Effects of horizontal displacement and inter-character spacing on transposed-character effects in same-different matching Dear Dr. Massol: I'm pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been deemed suitable for publication in PLOS ONE. Congratulations! Your manuscript is now with our production department. If your institution or institutions have a press office, please let them know about your upcoming paper now to help maximize its impact. If they'll be preparing press materials, please inform our press team within the next 48 hours. Your manuscript will remain under strict press embargo until 2 pm Eastern Time on the date of publication. For more information please contact onepress@plos.org. If we can help with anything else, please email us at plosone@plos.org. Thank you for submitting your work to PLOS ONE and supporting open access. Kind regards, PLOS ONE Editorial Office Staff on behalf of Dr. Francesca Peressotti Academic Editor PLOS ONE |
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