ABSTRACT
Theories of word recognition also differ in the role they assign to phonological recoding, the process of converting the visually based representation into its corresponding phonological code. Some theories propose that ßuent readers access word meanings directly from the visual representation (Smith, 1971; Thibadeau, Just, & Carpenter, 1982); others argue for phonological recoding (Massaro, 1975; van Orden, 1987); and others for a dual route, with the visual route being faster and used for familiar words while the phonological route is slower and used for unfamiliar words (Coltheart, Davelaar, Jonasson, & Besner, 1977; McCusker, Hillinger, & Bias, 1981). As will become evident in this review, individual differences in reading ability have been attributed to differences in the reliance on contextual and phonological processes in word recognition.
