Abstract
Serial processing was forced by displaying words one letter or letter cluster at a time. Letters or clusters appeared in adjacent spatial positions and in rapid sequence, followed immediately by a mask. Under these conditions, there was a sharp increase in the percentage of words correctly identified as the size of the letter clusters presented in series increased. In a control condition without masking, designed to permit parallel processing across clusters, words were identified near-perfectly, regardless of the size of the clusters displayed. Words displayed one letter at a time without masking were identified fairly well even when letters were presented in random order. The results are interpreted as evidence that skilled readers tend to process letters within words in parallel.
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The research reported in this paper was supported by Regional Grant OEG-3-72-0050 from the Office of Education, U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare. Thanks are due to Robert Shriver, who served as a research assistant for both studies, and to Professor Edward Smith, who commented on the manuscript.
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Travers, J.R. Word recognition with forced serial processing: Effects of segment size and temporal order variation. Perception & Psychophysics 16, 35–42 (1974). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03203246
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03203246