In order to understand the process of reading, it is important to determine how strings of letters are perceived. This study tests the hypothesis that units of visual perception may include pairs of letters and perhaps even high-frequency, monosyllabic trigrams (three-letter sequences). Participants were asked to report the names of either single…

The studies reported here examined the role of orthographic regularity and summed positional frequency in the perception of letter strings. College sophomores and sixth graders were asked to indicate whether or not a target letter was present in a six-letter string. Orthographic regularity and summed positional frequency were found to have no…

The development of rapid word processing skills was investigated using a visual search task. Visual displays of varying orthographic structure (words, pseudowords, nonwords) were presented to college students and to kindergarten, second-grade, and fourth-grade children. Response latencies were measured as subjects indicated whether a previously…

Two general topics are discussed: (1) The sequence of events that transpire in one second of reading, to suggest the nature of the processes that link them; and (2) the relation of this description to the acquisition of reading. Contains a list of 71 references. (RB)