Orthographic, Lexical and Semantic Processing

当今许多熟练阅读理论的一个原则是，单词识别是一个竞争的过程。具体地说，基本的一组假设是，当一个单词被固定时，会创建一个拼写代码来表示单词中的字母及其出现的顺序。然后，该代码不仅激活所呈现单词的心理(词汇)表示，还激活拼写相似的单词的心理(词汇)表示。然后，这些表征相互竞争，直到适当单词的心理表征最终赢得竞争(即，保持活跃)，而不适当词语的表征被抑制。 这项提议的目的是继续我的审查，通过适当的单词赢得这次比赛的过程，使读者获得对正在阅读的单词的理解的过程。一个主要问题是如何描述正字法编码过程。现在很清楚的是，具有至少部分被任何特定正字法代码激活的表示的单词集合是广泛的。例如，尽管“AVACITNO”和“VALUATION”的正字法代码在相同的位置没有字母，但我们的数据显示，阅读字母串“avactino”会创建一个正字法代码，激活单词“VALUATION”的词汇表示，这表明这两个正字法代码一定有些相似。(请注意，“AVACITNO”和“VALUATION”包含相同的字母集，即使它们在两个字母串中处于不同的位置。)因此，一个关键问题是如何以一种反映这种相似性的方式来表征正字法编码的性质。第二个关键问题是如何描述词汇选择过程，即正确的单词赢得竞争的过程。第三个关键问题是理解这种激活/竞争过程如何影响记忆中语义(即意义)信息的激活，即允许理解单词含义的信息。 检查这些问题的方法包括在计算机屏幕上呈现单个单词或非单词(“目标”)，紧跟在单词或非单词“质数”之后，这些单词或非单词“质数”被短暂地呈现并被遮盖，以便它们不会到达意识中。当读者公开地对目标做出反应时，他们通过将目标归类为单词或非单词，或者通过回答是否符合某个预先指定的标准(例如，所呈现的单词是否为手表？或所呈现的单词是否为动物的名称？)，来对目标进行计时。通过更好地了解正字法编码的性质和读者心理词典中表征之间的竞争/激活过程，我们希望获得更好的理解基础：a)成人正常阅读，b)如何最好地教儿童阅读，c)如何补救阅读障碍者的阅读困难。

One principle of many present day theories of skilled reading is that word identification is a competitive process. Specifically, the basic set of assumptions is that when a word is fixated, an orthographic code is created representing the letters in the word and the order in which they occur. That code then activates the mental (“lexical”) representation of not only the presented word but also those of similarly spelled words. Those representations then compete with one another until, typically, the mental representation of the appropriate word eventually wins the competition (i.e., remains active) with the representations of the inappropriate words being inhibited. The purpose of this proposal is to continue my examination of the processes by which the appropriate word wins this competition, the processes allowing the reader to gain an understanding of the word being read. One major question is how to characterize the orthographic coding process. What is now clear is that the set of words with representations that are at least partially activated by any particular orthographic code is extensive. For example, although the orthographic codes of "avacitno" and "vacation" have no letters in the same positions, our data show that reading the letter string "avactino" creates an orthographic code that activates the lexical representation for the word "vacation", indicating that the two orthographic codes must be somewhat similar. (Note that "avacitno" and "vacation" do contain the same set of letters even though they are in different positions in the two letter strings.) One key issue, therefore, is how to characterize the nature of orthographic coding in a way that reflects this similarity. A second key issue is how to characterize the lexical selection process, that is, the process by which the correct word wins the competition. A third key issue is understanding how this activation/competition process affects the activation of semantic (i.e., meaning) information in memory, information that allows the word's meaning to be understood. The means of examining these issues involves presenting single words or nonwords ("targets") on a computer screen following word or nonword "primes" which are presented briefly and masked so that they do not reach consciousness. Readers are timed while they overtly respond to the targets either by classifying them as words or nonwords or by responding "yes" or "no" as to whether they match some pre-specified criterion (e.g., is the presented word the word WATCH?, or is the presented word the name of an animal?). By gaining a better understanding of the nature of orthographic coding and of the competition/activation processes among representations in the reader’s mental lexicon, we hope to obtain a better foundation for understanding: a) normal reading in adults, b) how best to teach children to read and c) how to remediate reading difficulties in reading disabled individuals.