Global, component, and serial processing of printed words in beginning reading

Abstract

Nonreaders (end of kindergarten) and beginning readers (end of first grade) were compared. Both nonreaders and beginning readers imposed integral perceptual structures on shape/terminal letter information and configural perceptual structures on medial letter information: visual attention varied as a function of the unit of visual information but not as a function of learning to read. Nonreaders remembered a word more accurately than a letter in a word, showing visual origins of the word superiority effect. Beginning readers remembered a word faster than a letter in a word, which they remembered faster than a letter sequence in a word, suggesting early origins of the word priority effect. Only gains in memory for a letter sequence correlated with gains in word decoding. Throughout first grade, sentence verification was faster, not more accurate, when sentences were presented normally compared to one word at a time; repeated exposure of a word in parafoveal and foveal vision facilitates speed but not accuracy of comprehension. Results are discussed in reference to a model of global, component, and serial procedures.