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LETTER AND WORD PERCEPTION ADVANCES IN PSYCHOLOGY 4 Editors G . E. STELMACH P. A. VROON NORTH-HOLLAND PUBLISHING COMPANY AMSTERDAM * NEW YORK * OXFORD LETTER AND WORD PERCEPTION Orthographic Structure and VisualProcessing in Reading Dominic W. MASSARO Glen A. TAYLOR Richard L. VENEZKY James E. JASTRZEMBSKI and Peter A. LUCAS Wisconsin Research and Development Center for Individualized Schooling Universityof Wisconsin 1980 NORTH-HOLLAND PUBLISHING COMPANY AMSTERDAM * NEW YORK * OXFORD Copyright 1980 -The Board of Regentsof the University of Wisconsin System Copyright is claimed until 1990. Thereafter all portionsof this work covered by this copyright will be in the public domain. Thiswork was developed under agrant from the National Institute of Education, Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. However, the content does not necessarily reflect the position or policy of that Agency, and no official endorsement of these materials should be inferred. ISBN: 0 444 85493 2 Publishers: NORTH-HOLLAND PUBLISHING COMPANY AMSTERDAMoNEW YORK. OXFORD Sole distributors for the U.S.A. and Canada: ELSEVIER NORTH-HOLLAND, INC. 5 2 VANDERBILT AVENUE, NEW YORK, N.Y. 10017 Library of Congress Cataloging in Publieation Data Main entry under title: Letter and vord perception. (Advances in psychology ; 4) Includes bibliopaphical references and indexes. 1. Reading. 2. Word recognition. 3. English langupee--Alphabet. 4. Reading, Psychology of. I. M688az.0, Dominic W. 11. Series: Advauces in psychology (Amsterdam) 4. LBlO#O.L47 428.4 80-14350 PRINTED IN THE NETHERLANDS ?hegreatest tliiry intlieW O r K as d w i s h r n is containelCtlierein- excett CRESCI i ANDERSON This page intentionally left blank Preface ... t o c o m p l e t e l y a n a l y z e w h a t w e d o when w e r e a d would a l m o s t b e t h e acme of a psychologist's achievements, f o r i t would b e t o d e s c r i b e v e r y many o f t h e m o s t i n t r i c a t e w o r k i n g s o f t h e human m i n d , a s w e l l a s t o u n r a v e l t h e t a n g l e d s t o r y of t h e most remarkable s p e c i f i c performance t h a t c i v i l i z a t i o n has learned i n a l l its history. T h e s e w o r d s a r e no l e s s a p p r o p r i a t e t o d a y t h a n t h e y were when Edmund Burke Huey confronted the challenge of understanding reading i n 1 9 0 8 . And a l t h o u g h m o s t l i t e r a t e s o c i e t i e s d e v o t e v a l u a b l e f i n a n c i a l and human r e s o u r c e s t o u n d e r s t a n d i n g r e a d i n g , i t o f t e n seems a s i f w e a r e n o n e a r e r t o It achieving t h i s goal. However, some p r o g r e s s i s a p p a r e n t . is g e n e r a l l y a g r e e d t h a t r e a d i n g i n v o l v e s t h e u t i l i z a t i o n o f a along with the a c t i v e v a s t range of performance s k i l l s a p p l i c a t i o n o f t h e knowledge r e s o u r c e s o f t h e r e a d e r . The g o a l f o r t h e r e s e a r c h e r , i s t o d e s c r i b e e a c h o f t h e s k i l l s an d t o e v a l u a t e how k n o w l e d g e c o n t r i b u t e s t o t h e s k i l l e d p e r f o r m a n c e . Our r e s e a r c h i n v e s t i g a t e s how k n o w l ed g e o f t h e o r t h o g r a p h y ( r u l e s of spelling) i s a c t i v e l y e n g a g e d i n l e t t e r and word As m i g h t be expected, our perception of s k i l l e d readers. r e s e a r c h e n t e r p r i s e had i t s s h a r e o f b o t h s u b s t a n t i v e a d v a n c e s i n our understanding of b a s i c psychological p r o c e s s e s an d distracting glances a t some of t h e mind's bewildering inconsistencies. Our g o a l i n t h i s m o n o g r ap h i s t o c o m m