ABSTRACT
How does a skilled reader recognize a word? This question has generated an impressive body of literature over the years, and exploration of its parameters and dimensions has consumed the energies of researchers studying mental processes since before the turn of the century (Cattell, 1886a, 1886b; Erdmann & Dodge, 1898; Pillsbury, 1897). Understanding of the word recognition process is, of course, related to the more general question of how an individual extracts meaning from written language and is, in fact, propaedeutic to an understanding of the critical processes involved in learning to read. Historic and contemporary interest in reading is no accident because, to reiterate Huey's (1908) much quoted comment: To completely analyze what we do when we read would almost be the acme of a psychologist's achievements, for it would be to describe very many of the most intricate workings of the human mind [p. 6].
