Visual Word Recognition: Its Implications for Reading Research and Instruction.

Little research has been done to explain just why words are recognized more easily than letters alone; although, this phenomenon has been accepted widely by educators. Therefore, a model of the processes involved in word recognition and suggestions concerning how these processes can be put to use in reading instruction are presented. The model describes word recognition as a feature-scanning process in which relevant cues, called distinctive features, are analyzed and synthesized. A description of the scanning process is given with its distinctive features defined. Explanations of how a skilled reader uses feature combinations to recognize letters and words and how such a reader uses the redundancy in a word or letter sequence are also offered. Graphs and a bibliography are included. A discussion of variables which influence the legibility of print is appended. (NH)