Open AccessUnmasking individual differences in adult reading procedures by disrupting holistic orthographic perception
Author(s) -
Elizabeth A. Hirshorn,
Travis Simcox,
Corrine Durisko,
Charles A. Perfetti,
Julie A. Fiez
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
plos one
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.99
H-Index - 332
ISSN - 1932-6203
DOI - 10.1371/journal.pone.0233041
Subject(s) - reading (process) , perception , reading comprehension , cognitive psychology , psychology , word recognition , comprehension , coding (social sciences) , identification (biology) , orthographic projection , population , computer science , linguistics , natural language processing , artificial intelligence , biology , medicine , neuroscience , philosophy , statistics , botany , mathematics , environmental health , programming language
Word identification is undeniably important for skilled reading and ultimately reading comprehension. Interestingly, both lexical and sublexical procedures can support word identification. Recent cross-linguistic comparisons have demonstrated that there are biases in orthographic coding (e.g., holistic vs. analytic) linked with differences in writing systems, such that holistic orthographic coding is correlated with lexical-level reading procedures and vice versa. The current study uses a measure of holistic visual processing used in the face processing literature, orientation sensitivity, to test individual differences in word identification within a native English population. Results revealed that greater orientation sensitivity (i.e., greater holistic processing) was associated with a reading profile that relies less on sublexical phonological measures and more on lexical-level characteristics within the skilled English readers. Parallels to Chinese procedures of reading and a proposed alternative route to skilled reading are discussed.