In a single visual word recognition experiment, the effects of (11 eccentricity of presentation, (2)word length, and (3) word frequency were investigated. The stimuli used were Dutch nouns in two frequency classes of about 15 and 150.10-6 ; word length varied from 1 to 10; eccentricity varied from -4 to +4 deg. The response quality and response latency of 11 subjects were measured. For the correct responses, recognition scores decreased and response latencies increased with eccentricity; both showed asymmetrical curves in the visual field. It is argued that word length proper affects neither the probability of correct responses nor latency. A clear word frequency effect was established. The eccentricity of presentation is considered as the determinant of the amount of available information, thus directly influencing accuracy and latency. The linear relationship between accuracy and latency is a major finding. A word recognition scheme is offered which incorporates (1) activation, (2)decision, and (3) speech. The time relations between incoming retinal information and response decision, leading to an extra 400 msec for incorrect as compared with correct responses, are discussed. Word recognition in reading is examined, together with the impact of the present experimental results on information flow in successive eye fixations, eye movement control, and eye-voicespan.In the cognitive act of reading, several processes are involved: information is extracted from the text, processed, recognized, assigned a meaning, and, sometimes, uttered overtly. We are mainly interested in the visual reading processes, particularly in the cues for recognition. In printed text, words clearly form visual entities; in addition, words are emphasized in teaching people to read. We therefore work on the assumption that words are relevant units in visual reading processes.Both perceptual and linguistic factors contribute in word recognition (Neisser, 1967;Gibson & Levin, 1975). An important line of research at the Institute for Perception Research has been the specification of perceptual factors in single words in relation to the stimulus configuration (Bouma, 1971(Bouma, , 1973 Schiepers, 1976a Schiepers, , 1976bSchiepers, , 1978. The linguistic aspects of word recognition, on the other hand, are brought about the reader's knowledge of the language. Generally established linguistic factors affecting word recognition are, for example, word frequency (Broadbent, 1967;Rosenzweig & Postman, 1958), word meaning and redundancy by contrasting words vs. pseudowords vs. nonwords (Kolers, 1970;Wheeler, 1970), familiarity (Bouwhuis, 1979), and context (Morton, 1969). In our previous experiments (Schiepers, 1976b(Schiepers, , 1976c, word frequency and distributional constraints in the language were found to have only a minor influence. Probably, our experimental conditions, which imitate reading fixations as closely as possible, were responsible for a high transfer of stimulus information, thus giving prevalence to perceptual factors. In the exp...
