A model of context effects in perception is applied to perception of letters. Perception results from excitatory and inhibitory interactions of detectors for visual features, letters, and words. The model produces facilitation for letters in pronounceable pseudowords as well as words and accounts for rule-governed performance without any rules.…

Reviews work on three areas of visual information that are available to readers: information provided by the conventional arrangements of the print on the page, by the features of each letter, and by the shapes of entire words. (HOD)

Traces the history of the alphabet; cites recent developments in the field of neurophysiology that tend to support the hypothesis that the alphabet produced a situation favorable for the development of logic, rational thought, and science. Also comments on the reemergence of the oral tradition. (GT)

Presents contrasting evidence on the rate of letter identification. (AEA)