ABSTRACT

This chapter examines the evidence for a range of types of memory encoding that may be involved in reading. It suggests that there is evidence for at least three types of short-term or buffer storage in the reading process—namely, articulatory coding (the inner voice), acoustic coding (the inner ear), and visual coding (the inner eye). The chapter attempts to collect independent evidence that some form of phonemic coding can proceed during articulatory suppression. D. Besner, who examined the effect of articulatory suppression on the speed and accuracy of rhyme judgments made concerning either pairs of words or pairs of nonwords. There is one variable that have been consistently confounded with phonemic similarity—namely, visual similarity. It seems likely that some form of internal visual representation does mediate between the printed word and comprehension in reading. It is clear that subjects can subvocalize when reading. Introspection suggests that the task is performed by auditory imagery, the inner voice of subvocalization.