Parts, Wholes, and Context in Reading: A Triple Dissociation
Open Access
- 1 August 2007
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Public Library of Science (PLoS) in PLOS ONE
- Vol. 2 (8), e680
- https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0000680
Abstract
Research in object recognition has tried to distinguish holistic recognition from recognition by parts. One can also guess an object from its context. Words are objects, and how we recognize them is the core question of reading research. Do fast readers rely most on letter-by-letter decoding (i.e., recognition by parts), whole word shape, or sentence context? We manipulated the text to selectively knock out each source of information while sparing the others. Surprisingly, the effects of the knockouts on reading rate reveal a triple dissociation. Each reading process always contributes the same number of words per minute, regardless of whether the other processes are operating.Keywords
This publication has 50 references indexed in Scilit:
- Sensitivity to syntax in visual cortexCognition, 2009
- Effect of letter spacing on visual span and reading speedJournal of Vision, 2007
- Amblyopic reading is crowdedJournal of Vision, 2007
- The remarkable inefficiency of word recognitionNature, 2003
- Visual Feature Integration in a World of ObjectsCurrent Directions in Psychological Science, 1995
- The Role of Parts and Spatial Relations in Object IdentificationPerception, 1993
- Configurational Information in Face PerceptionPerception, 1987
- Word shape's in poor shape for the race to the lexicon.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 1984
- Quest: A Bayesian adaptive psychometric methodPerception & Psychophysics, 1983
- Looking at upside-down faces.Journal of Experimental Psychology, 1969