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Perceptual Aspects of the Reading Process and Its Development

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Book cover Perception

Part of the book series: Handbook of Sensory Physiology ((SENSORY,volume 8))

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Abstract

An acceptable definition of reading would necessarily be broad enough to include many processes: perceiving, comprehending, remembering, and even making inferences. These cognitive processes would be accompanied by other processes which might be said to serve them such as orienting the head, fixating and moving the eyes, and articulating subvocally. Learning to read, therefore, involves more than perceptual learning. Nevertheless, perception is propaedeutic to any other process involved in reading. The information on the printed page must be extracted; it is embodied in the printed stimulus and can only be picked up by perceptual processes. These processes vary tremendously in efficiency: in skill of discrimination; in the way the page is scanned; in the size of the unit extracted; and in flexibility of attention. Perceptual learning takes place in improving these skills and will thus be stressed. Since reading requires extraction of information from visual displays, visual perception will be considered primarily, but phonologic aspects of words and larger speech units must be related to corresponding visual units and will be considered briefly.

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  1. Ithaca, N.Y., USA

    E. J. Gibson

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  1. E. J. Gibson
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  1. Dept. of Psychology, E10-139, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA

    Richard Held

  2. Psychology Department, Pennsylvania State University, 417 Moore Building, University Park, PA, 16802, USA

    Herschel W. Leibowitz

  3. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA

    Hans-Lukas Teuber

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Gibson, E.J. (1978). Perceptual Aspects of the Reading Process and Its Development. In: Held, R., Leibowitz, H.W., Teuber, HL. (eds) Perception. Handbook of Sensory Physiology, vol 8. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-46354-9_24

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-46354-9_24

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