ABSTRACT
As the content of this volume reveals, considerable progress has been made in understanding basic reading processes through extensive behavioral and neuroimaging studies of normal and impaired reading. This research has led to the development of detailed models of word reading, reading acquisition, and the bases of reading impairments. As many researchers have noted, writing systems afford two ways of determining the meanings of words: by mapping from spelling to meaning (the “direct” route) or by mapping from spelling to an intermediate phonological code and then to meaning (phonologically mediated access). The origin of the term dual-route model is obscure, but the concept of visual and phonological procedures was discussed as early as Baron and Strawson (1976; cf. Carr & Pollatsek, 1985; Seidenberg, 1985). Research within this framework has focused on the properties of these routes, and how their use differs as a function of factors such as type of word (e.g., high or low frequency), type of writing system (deep or shallow), and reader skill (see Seidenberg, 1995, for review). 1
