ABSTRACT

This chapter examines the effect of distraction of visual attention on performance in the tempo-naming task. Attentional distraction was hypothesized to interfere with the process of identifying and positioning the letters of a word stimulus. Errors were used as window into the effect of attentional distraction on processes of word reading. Errors in word naming can reveal dysfunctions in the component processes of word reading. An abundance of regularization errors suggests an over-emphasis on sub-lexical spelling-sound correspondences relative to lexical knowledge. An abundance of lexicalization errors suggests a malfunction in the influence of lexical knowledge. C. T. Kello and D. C. Plaut introduced the tempo-naming task as a method for inducing naming errors under extreme pressure for speeded responding. Emphasis on lexical knowledge can also be found under manipulations of strategic control, and in the reading errors that define phonological dyslexia.