Reports on experiments designed to explore the way the processing unit depends on the information in the component letters and the information contained in their arrangements in a familiar letter string. Hypotheses were tested by degrading the quality of individual letters and by spacing the letters irregularly. (CLK)

Presents a sequence for teaching letters based on graphic features; initial and final frequency; the order children learn pronunciation; the ease they can learn to copy, write, and name letters; and phonological differences among sounds letters represent. (TO)

The present study is an extension of Conrad's work on short-term memory with the emphasis on the kinds of confusions the deaf make in recalling visually presented letters and how they differ from those made by hearing Ss. (Author/RK)

Evaluates some of the 100 different teaching approaches to beginning reading and reading theory. (Author/RB)

Study investigated whether visual serial search time for letters differed significantly from visual serial search time for numbers. (Author/MB)

Compared age differences in search tasks for two groups of children (N=40) and an adult control group (N=20) who completed a similar visual search task, i.e., determining whether a predesignated target character occurred in a character string. The mean search latency decreased with age. Results showed a qualitative difference in processing letters…

Familiar letter sequences in noncued portions of a tachistoscopic display were shown to reduce accuracy of partial report. Findings suggest that familiarity may automatically direct attentional resources to a particular spatial region. Such attentional capture may be disruptive if the material is presented at another location. (Author/RD)

The duration and timing of the context is which letters occur is shown to influence the perceptibility of the target in experiments demonstrating that early on enhanced word presentations and pronounceable-pseudoword contexts increase letter perceptibility. The perceptibility of letters in strings sharing several or few letters with words is…

Hypotheses about the processes involved in word recognition are reviewed and assessed through four experiments. Overall results were compatible with criterion bias models. A version of this model attributes the advantage of words (over pseudowords and nonwords) to interfacilitation among single letter and lexical units in memory. (Author/RD)

Twelve first-grade children were tested on word-reading and automaticity of letter and word processing. Word-reading speed increased steadily during the year. Apparently, their ability to process letters automatically was acquired prior to the ability to read words rapidly and accurately. (Author/CP)