The “special effect” of case mixing on word identification: Neuropsychological and transcranial magnetic stimulation studies dissociating case mixing from contrast reduction

Three subexperiments are reported, evaluating the effects of manipulating contrast (Experiment 1a) or case mixing (Experiments 1b and 1c) on reading. We examined two patients with bilateral parietal lesions and one patient with occipital lesions, as well as a group of age-matched controls. Participants were required to name words as fast and as accurately as they could. In the contrast experiment, words were presented in single case, in either low or high contrast. In the case experiment, the words were presented in high-(Experiment 1b) or low contrast (Experiment 1c), either in single or mixed case.