Lexical and nonlexical phonological priming in reading aloud.

Five homophone priming experiments were reported in which the lexicality of primes and targets were varied, so that primes and targets were either nonword homophones (keff-keph), word homophones (brake-break), pseudohomophones (brayk-braik), or of mixed lexicality (brake-brayk and brayk-break). Results showed that naming of targets was facilitated by a phonologically identical prime only when a word was in the prime-target pairing. Simulations of these data using the dual-route cascaded model of reading (e.g., M. Coltheart, B. Curtis, P. Atkins, & M. Haller, 1993) were also reported. These results are evidence against the view that there is a critical early stage in the process of visual word recognition in which words are represented in purely phonological form, and they are evidence for the view that knowledge of orthography and phonology is represented locally in the reading system. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Serial processing in reading aloud: Reply to Zorzi (2000).

K. Rastle and M. Coltheart (1999; see also M. Coltheart & K. Rastle, 1994) reported data demonstrating that the cost of irregularity in reading aloud low-frequency exception words is modulated by the position of the irregularity in the word. They argued that these data implicated a serial process and falsified all models of reading aloud that operate solely in parallel, a conclusion that M. Zorzi (2000) challenged by successfully simulating the position of irregularity effect with such a model. Zorzi (2000) further claimed that a reanalysis of K. Rastle and A Coltheart's (1999) data demonstrates sensitivity to grapheme-phoneme consistency (which he claimed was confounded across the position of irregularity manipulation) rather than the use of a serial process. Here, the authors argue that M. Zorzi's (2000) reanalyses were inappropriate and reassert that K. Rastle and A Coltheart's (1999) findings are evidence for serial processing. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Children's and adults' reading of nonwords: Effects of regularity and consistency.

The procedures used by novice readers to assemble pronunciations for nonwords were investigated. Children in Grades 1–3 read aloud consonant-vowel-consonant and longer monosyllabic nonwords. By the end of Grade 1, children displayed a good grasp of grapheme–phoneme (G–P) correspondences (e.g., ai, ow). Grade 2 and 3 readers increasingly used larger orthographic correspndences termed rimes (e.g., -ook, -ild). However, G–P correspondences determined most responses. Adults likewise used G–P rules when reading aloud nonwords and were more accurate at applying the rules. The strong reliance of Grade 1 and 2 readers on G–P rules was also demonstrated by their superior oral reading of regular words along with a tendency to regularize exception words (e.g., reading bull to rhyme with dull). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Selective forward masking.

Assessed the effects of masking on recall accuracy in 2 experiments with a total of 28 male undergraduates. When a patterned masking stimulus was presented immediately before a centrally-fixated, tachistoscopically-presented 7-letter row (forward masking), a selective effect on recall accuracy was found, as measured by a partial-report technique. There was greater masking of the end letters than of the center letters in the displays. When the masking stimulus was presented immediately after the presentation of a letter row (backward masking), the results confirmed previous findings of greater masking of the center letters than the end letters. These different selective effects of forward and backward masking are consistent with the assumption that the processing of multiletter displays begins at the ends of the letter rows. (French summary) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

On the selective effects of a patterned masking stimulus.

Investigated previous findings which suggest that a patterned masking stimulus, presented immediately following tachistoscopic presentation of letter rows, produces large decrements in the recall of letters from the central positions in the rows but has little effect on recall from either end of the displays. 4 experiments with 92 undergraduate Ss confirm the existence of a selective masking effect. The effect was obtained following exposure durations which varied from 30-200 msec. and with both full- and partial-report techniques. Also the selective masking effect was limited to multiletter displays in that it was shown that single letters were masked equally well across the positions used for an entire row. Results suggest that both ends of multiletter displays are processed and identified before the center positions of the displays are processed. (French summary) (15 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Phonological recoding in reading for meaning by adults and children.

Phonological recoding in reading has been studied by requiring adults or children to judge whether printed sentences are correct or not. When some sentences are orthographically unacceptable but phonologically acceptable (e.g., The girl through the ball), both children and adults make abnormally many false positives with such sentences. It is unclear whether the phonological recoding that produces this effect is attributable to assembled (nonlexical) or addressed (lexical) phonology. Two types of phonologically acceptable but orthographically unacceptable sentences were devised: Those in which the crucial item ("through" in the above example) was an irregular word (so that its phonology could only be obtained lexically), and those in which the crucial item was a homophonic nonword (so that its phonology could only be obtained by assembled phonology). Both types of sentence produced significantly high false-positive rates for adult readers and children, indicating the use of assembled and addressed phonology during sentence reading. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Serial and strategic effects in reading aloud.

M. Coltheart and K. Rastle (1994) reported that the size of the regularity effect on word-naming latency decreases across position of irregularity, implicating a serial process in reading aloud. In response to criticism by D. C. Plaut, J. L. McClelland, M. S. Seidenberg, and K. Patterson (1996), these results were replicated with monosyllabic words that had been controlled for consistency. In a second experiment, participants named nonword- or regular-word targets mixed with either first-position irregular fillers or third-position irregular fillers. Target naming was slowed when first-position irregular fillers were present, compared with target naming when third-position irregular fillers were present. These data suggest that participants can slow use of the nonlexical route if faced with very costly exception words. Simulations using the dual-route cascaded model (M. Coltheart, B. Curtis, P. Atkins, & M. Haller, 1993) are presented. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Serial processing in reading aloud: Evidence for dual-route models of reading.

The authors examined the regularity effect on reading aloud as a function of left-to-right phonemic position of irregularity in low-frequency exception words. Ss named 96 low-frequency exception words categorized into 5 conditions on the basis of the position (1st through 5th) of their 1st irregular grapheme-to-phoneme correspondence (GPC). Latencies and error rates for these words were compared with the rates for 96 matched GPC regular controls. Results showed that the cost of irregularity decreased monotonically over the 5 positions of irregularity. This result is offered as evidence for dual-route models of reading and against parallel distributed processing models of reading. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Familiarity and method of report as determinants of tachistoscopic performance.

Presented 168 7-letter sequences, representing either 1st- or 2nd-order approximations to English, for 150 msec. and masked them immediately after presentation. For 2 different groups of 14 undergraduates each, performance was evaluated by either a partial-report (PR) or a full-report (FR) procedure. In general, 2nd-order approximations were better recalled regardless of the method of report, and the overall magnitude of the familiarity effect was approximately the same under both PR and FR procedures. The different methods of report, however, led to quite different accuracy functions across the letter rows. Results indicate that familiarity, as defined by differences in sequential redundancy, has its effect during processing but that left-to-right sequential processing may not necessarily be involved. (French summary) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Basic processes in reading: Computation of abstract letter identities.

A speeded classification experiment examined the hypothesis that an early processing stage in reading involves the computation of abstract letter identities. When 20 undergraduates were asked to base their classification on physical criteria, letter strings that differed in case but shared the same letter identities (e.g., HILE/hile) were classified as "different" less efficiently than strings with a common phonological code but different spelling (e.g., HILE/hyle). Letter strings with a common phonological code but different spelling were classified as efficiently as letter strings without a common phonological code (e.g., HILE/hule). Results of the present experiment, along with other experimental findings and some neuropsychological observations, provide converging evidence for a representation and comparison process that is neither visual nor phonological but is based on abstract letter identities. It is suggested that the computation of abstract letter identities is a precursor to lexical access during reading. Implications for the interpretation of certain developmental reading difficulties are noted. (French abstract) (26 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)