Word Recognition Reconsidered: Toward a Multi-Context Model

Abstract

A significant yet poorly understood question in the literature of reading research is what is meant by the process of "decoding" or "word recognition." Of particular interest are the differences between good and poor readers with respect to these skills.Although much research has been conducted in an attempt to define "decoding" and "word recognition," this research has been quite fragmented. This stems partly from the fact that this research has focused equally on a few variables at a time — e.g., word frequency, word length, word meaningfulness and word imagery — and has failed to control for the interaction between these variables. Another reason is that there has been little attempt to operationalize systematically what it means to say a word has been "decoded." Most operational definitions of decoding have emphasized identification or reproduction of physical aspects of a word; e.g., speed by which words can be pronounced, recognized or compared under various tachistoscopic time-frame conditions.