The Spatial Coding Model of Visual Word Identification

Visual word identification requires readers to code the identity and order of the letters in a word and match this code against previously learned codes. Current models of this lexical matching process posit context-specific letter codes in which letter representations are tied to either specific se...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Psychological review 2010-07, Vol.117 (3), p.713-758
Main Author: Davis, Colin J
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biological and medical sciences
Codes
Coding
Comparative Analysis
Comprehension
Computer Simulation
Decision Making
England
Evaluation Methods
Foreign Countries
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Human
Humans
Identification
Language
Learning
Linguistics
Models, Psychological
Orthography
Pattern Recognition, Visual
Perception
Priming
Production and perception of written language
Psychological aspects
Psychology
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Reading
Recognition (Psychology)
Simulation
Spatial Ability
Task Analysis
Vision
Visual acuity
Visual Perception
Word Recognition
Words
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Description
Summary:Visual word identification requires readers to code the identity and order of the letters in a word and match this code against previously learned codes. Current models of this lexical matching process posit context-specific letter codes in which letter representations are tied to either specific serial positions or specific local contexts (e.g., letter clusters). The spatial coding model described here adopts a different approach to letter position coding and lexical matching based on context-independent letter representations. In this model, letter position is coded dynamically, with a scheme called spatial coding. Lexical matching is achieved via a method called superposition matching, in which input codes and learned codes are matched on the basis of the relative positions of their common letters. Simulations of the model illustrate its ability to explain a broad range of results from the masked form priming literature, as well as to capture benchmark findings from the unprimed lexical decision task.
ISSN:0033-295X
1939-1471
DOI:10.1037/a0019738