ABSTRACT
Writing pervades modern life as a principle vehicle of communication. Writing is also the vehicle in which cognitive and social psychologists present experimental stimuli and collect responses, as evidence of mental activity. Written language is, therefore, a central aspect of everyday life and is at the core of research on memory, attitude formation, persuasion, inference making, problem solving, and so on. However, most psychological knowledge is derived from and tested in research conducted with participants processing and reporting words written in alphabetic scripts.
