Towards a universal model of reading

Abstract

In the last decade, reading research has seen a paradigmatic shift. A new wave of computational models of orthographic processing that offer various forms of noisy position or context-sensitive coding, have revolutionized the field of visual word recognition. The influx of such models stems mainly from consistent findings, coming mostly from European languages, regarding an apparent insensitivity of skilled readers to letter-order. Underlying the current revolution is the theoretical assumption that the insensitivity of readers to letter order reflects the special way in which the human brain encodes the position of letters in printed words. The present paper discusses the theoretical shortcomings and misconceptions of this approach to visual word recognition. A systematic review of data obtained from a variety of languages demonstrates that letter-order insensitivity is not a general property of the cognitive system, neither it is a property of the brain in encoding letters. Rather, it is a variant and idiosyncratic characteristic of some languages, mostly European, reflecting a strategy of optimizing encoding resources, given the specific structure of words. Since the main goal of reading research is to develop theories that describe the fundamental and invariant phenomena of reading across orthographies, an alternative approach to model visual word recognition is offered. The dimensions of a possible universal model of reading, which outlines the common cognitive operations involved in orthographic processing in all writing systems, are discussed.

Universal Reading Processes Are Modulated by Language and Writing System

“…More generally, the literal reading of the claim that languages get the writing system they deserve has to go untested. (Frost, 2012, seems to make this stronger claim.) Writing system development includes too many factors (variations in technology and other cultural factors) to allow one to say that over time, the written language "settles" into an optimal alignment with the spoken language.…”

“…This idea has had a number of expressions, most recently by Frost (2012) and Seidenberg (2011). Much earlier, M.A.K.…”

“…Analyses of the influence of writing systems on reading processes have emphasized universal principles and specific variations (e.g., Perfetti, 2003;Ziegler & Goswami, 2005). Finally, the idea that a language and its writing system are intertwined in some way (Halliday, 1977;Mattingly, 1972) has been renewed in claims that this intertwining influences reading processes (Seidenberg, 2011;Frost, 2012). In what follows, we examine this complex of issues among language, writing, and reading with the hope of not adding too much additional confusion.…”

Universality in eye movements and reading: A trilingual investigation

“…27-28). In a recent article, Frost (2012) makes a strong argument for a Universality Constraint in relation to reading, suggesting that psychological models of the process of reading should reflect cognitive operations that are common across languages with different writing systems or scripts. In his thesis, Frost goes beyond the traditional Chomskyan notions of universality, making the case for cross-linguistic commonality at the level of cognitive processing.…”

“…First, unlike the implicit position adopted by Frost (2012), we do not consider theories of written word identification to be the equivalent of theories of reading (see Liversedge, Blythe & Drieghe, 2012). Instead, we consider comprehension of multiword text to constitute reading, rather than simply the identification of isolated words.…”