LETTER INFORMATION AND ORTHOGRAPHIC CONTEXT IN WORD PERCEPTION

Theories of word perception in reading can be categorized in terms of the assumption made about whether or not a word context modifies the feature analysis of its component letters. Independence theories assume that the visual information passed on by feature analysis is independent of word context. Nonindependence theories assume that a word context directly influences visual analysis. The present experiment tested the 2 types of theories by independently varying orthographic context and visual letter information in a letter recognition task with 11 undergraduate Ss. Results contradict the qualitative predictions of the class of nonindependence theories and are accurately described by a quantification of independence theory. (40 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved). © 1979 American Psychological Association.