Lateral masking

Lateral masking is a problem for the human visual perception of identical or similar entities in close proximity. This can be illustrated by the difficulty of counting the vertical bars of a barcode.

In linguistics lateral masking refers to the interference a letter has on its neighbor[1]. This is a problem readers encounter when reading a word. The identity of a letter in the middle of a word is obscured by the presence of its neighboring letters.

Lateral masking is also a problem in orthography design[2]. A readable orthography will avoid situations in which a reader is faced with severe lateral masking.

Notes

  1. ^ Massaro, Dominic W. and Alexandra Jesse (2005): The Magic of Reading - Too many influences for quick and easy explanations. in: Richard L. Venezky, Tom Trabasso, John P. Sabatini, Dominic W. Massaro, Robert Calfee (eds.): From Orthography to Pedagogy: Essays in Honor of Richard L. Venezky. Routledge. ISBN 0805850899
  2. ^ Roberts (2008), pp. 454 ff

References

Roberts, David (2008). L'orthographe du ton en kabiyè au banc d'essai. INALCO. Paris [1]