ABSTRACT
In this chapter we show that the use of formal models can enhance our understanding of both reading development and skilled adult reading. We argue that several empirical phenomena in the study of reading, including some that have been seen as highly significant, cannot be understood without careful consideration of the properties of the psychological mechanisms that are assumed to give rise to the relevant behavior. Such a claim, in itself, is surely unexceptionable. However, we suggest that appropriately detailed consideration of the properties of cognitive models may, in many cases, be impossible unless the models in question have received a formal expression of some kind. This formal expression will most often take the form either of a mathematical formulation of the model, or of a computer program that implements the cognitive model. We substantiate these claims with examples, each of which is designed to show how a formal analysis of, or formal model of, some aspect of reading behavior has led to insights and understandings that might not have emerged in the absence of formal modeling.
