Visual information processing as a determinant of reading speed

Ellis, Nick C.; Miles, T. R.

doi:10.1111/j.1467-9817.1978.tb00179.x

Cited by 4 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 17 publications

(9 reference statements)

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“…This appears to be an extremely complex process, involving the movement of the eyes, making a distinction between foreground and background, shape, closure, inversion and mirror images, and possibly detection of slope and edges and much more. It probably contains its own short term memory which has been postulated by Ellis and Miles (1978) as the visual information store (VIS).…”

Section: (C)mentioning

confidence: 99%

A Model of the Reading Process

Thomas¹

1983

British J Special Edu

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Descriptions of reading are very diverse. Many factors are demonstrated as influencing reading performance. Reading itself has more than one definition and anyone trying to understand what is involved must be bewildered. It appeared to me that it might be possible to construct a flexible model of reading, which would enable an inquirer to relate the various pieces of information about investigations, tests, emphases, materials and types of performer.A model is useful in that it can help us to understand the true object; it is no substitute for the true object. The springing suspension on a model car is not usually like that on a real car but we can get some insight into its function in the real car by understanding the model. Likewise, analogies are useful provided one remembers they are analogies. If someone understands, with respect to a car, the idea of fuel, burning, oxidisation and waste products they will have some basis for understanding the similar function in animals.I wish to propose a model plus an analogy which I feel could draw together many areas of description and emphasis. Assumptions: the modelThis model is based on the assumption that the written word is broadly speech encoded into visual symbols and that speech must be preceded by listening. (a) Listening and hearing (see figure I)In hearing there must be some input sound which the listener must first analyse (figure 11). Much is involved in analysis; LISTENING r-d+------+ -1 Gating Feed back Auditory Memory Auditory I I Fig 1 Meaning 0distinguishing a sound from its background, noting its duration and noting its range of frequencies for example.The second step is for the significant sounds to be stored or memorised for future reference, unwanted sounds being rejected or forgotten (figure Iz). This process OCCUTS in a child experiencing its first sounds, as well as in a skilled and experienced listening adult.Thirdly, the analysed and memorised sounds are related to meaning (figure 13).Thus, for example, I may be sitting at a station and there is a variety of sounds coming to my ear such as talking, distant cars and doors banging. Out of this background comes a particular sound, a sort of swish which is slightly behind me. I pick this sound out by attention, distinguish it from the background sounds and recognise it as the train I wish to catch, coming into the platform. Another example may be provided by a young baby who is in its cot. A variety of noises comes to its ears. It does not distinguish these as brothers and sisters playing, cars outside, wind hissing but one range of sounds out of all the others connects with meaning: its mother's voice. After not many days this noise above all else is remembered and connected with meaning.In short, certain sounds have meaning (no previous memory, no meaning). Notice how if we hear a sound for the first time it normally has no meaning. We remain puzzled until we either further analyse it, and can recognise it as an unusual example of an existing sound we know, or we relate it t o previously known s...

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Section: (C)mentioning

confidence: 99%

A Model of the Reading Process

Thomas¹

1983

British J Special Edu

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Visual and name coding in dyslexic children

Ellis

1981

Psychol. Res

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The state of reading research in the United Kingdom

Goodacre

1979

Journal Research in Reading

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I have been asked to write this editorial because I have been responsible for two ventures in reading research related to monitoring and disseminating information about the range and the scope of such research. The first is the establishment of the British Register of Reading Research and the second the annual Review of Reading Research. The Register was an attempt to find out the topics and areas being researched for the purpose of higher degrees in Universities and Polytechnics, since I 970. It was first published in I 976 as a result of funding which was part of a grant made by the DES to the School of Education, University of Reading for the period 1974-77, later extended to I 980. The annual Review is a self-inflicted task, of increasing proportions as more academic jounrals appear and reading is mentioned in areas such as educational sociology, socio-linguistics, psycholinguistics, neuropsychology, etc. I monitor between thirty and forty British academic journals, distinguishing between research and general interest articles and books when I come to write the review and list the annotated articles. The following impressions therefore are based on these experiences and are not the result ofany quantitative study ofthe information from these two sources of information.Over the last decade "reading" has been described increasingly in broader terms, with emphasis on reading as a meaning making process. The process is now more and more being seen as complex, and involving much more than mere verbal performance. More attention has focussed on both the cognitive and affective factors and "reading" is seen as a developmental process, although there still seems to be controversy centring round the early acquisition stage; do we start with letter recognition and build up to the higher order skills or do we begin with meaning and 'map' such meaning, using our knowledge of the 'rules' of verbal language and our inferences from experimental knowledge, onto written language?The often acrimonius arguments over the existence and nature ofdyslexia seem to be giving way to small-scale studies of a comparative nature, which are providing evidence of what the dyslexic, compared with the normal reader, finds difficult about the learning to read process. Increasingly the dyslexic is seen as having a deficiency in information-processing, especially in naming or labelling (Ellis and Miles, 1978) and in memory information storage and capacity (Thomson and Wilsher, 1978), which seems to affect visual and auditory sequencing. Vision and eye movements have, after a period of nearly forty years, once again appeared in the literature as topics of investigation. Previous research mainly concentrated on static vision, and the development now seems to be based on the realisation that dynamic viewing and ocular control may be more important factors in learning to read than individuals' irregularities in distance sight-the latter being the type of vision usually tested in schools. (Bedwell et al, 1978; Moseley, 1978). Guest lcditorialThe eye...

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Visual information processing as a determinant of reading speed

Cited by 4 publications

References 17 publications

A Model of the Reading Process

A Model of the Reading Process

Visual and name coding in dyslexic children

The state of reading research in the United Kingdom

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