ABSTRACT
The most realistic alternatives to bottom-up models are interactive models that envision both bottom-up and top-down directions of information flow. How syntactic, semantic, and factual information would exert top-down influence on lexical access would depend on the particular interactive model adopted. Models of reading and language comprehension have come to be dominated by the distinction between bottom-up and top-down sources of information and processing control. In oral reading, the reader produces an oral rendition of the printed text shortly after the intake of the visual information. The predominant requirement of oral reading is that each word be recognized and verbalized in serial order. Oral reading has the advantage of yielding a continuous on-line response that is roughly cotemporaneous with the visual input. The reader can scan quickly ahead in an attempt to locate the information or can select an interpretation using whatever information is available at that point.
