Chapter 9 - Visual Word Recognition: The Journey from Features to Meaning (A Travel Update)

Abstract

This chapter presents a discussion on the word recognition literature. Word recognition research is central to notions regarding different levels/codes of analysis in language processing, attention, and memory. The lexical unit is ideally suited for such work because words can be analyzed at many different levels—for example, features, letters, graphemes, phonemes, morphemes, and semantics. Word recognition research is also central in the development of theories of automatic and attentional processes. Part of the reason for this emphasis is the natural relation between the development of reading skills and the development of automaticity. One can see the extra impetus from education circles regarding the development of word recognition skills. Moreover, the notion that the aspect of word recognition has been automatized and is no longer under the conscious control of the reader has historically provided some of the major fuel for arguments regarding self-encapsulated linguistic processing modules. The issue of how attentional control signals might modulate processes involved in word recognition has received renewed interest recently, and hence, notions of automaticity and modularity have been reevaluated.