Reading speech and hearing print: Constraining models of visual word recognition by exploring connections with speech perception

Current models of reading and speech perception differ widely in their assu mptions regarding the interaction of orthographic and phonological informat ion during language perception. The present experiments examined this inter action through a two-alternative, forced-choice paradigm, and explored the nature of the connections between graphemic and phonemic processing subsyst ems. Experiments 1 and 2 demonstrated a facilitation-dominant influence (i. e., benefits exceed costs) of graphemic contexts on phoneme discrimination, which is interpreted as a sensitivity effect. Experiments 3 and 4 demonstr ated a symmetrical influence (i.e., benefits equal costs) of phonemic conte xts on grapheme discrimination, which can be interpreted as either a bias e ffect, or an equally facilitative/inhibitory sensitivity effect. General im plications for the functional architecture of language processing models ar e discussed, as well as specific implications for models of visual word rec ognition and speech perception.