A series of ten experiments is proposed to be conducted during the training period. These experiments are based on a phenomenon recently discovered by the candidate. The phenomenon involves """"""""feedback inconsistent"""""""" words, such as SWEET and TREAT, which share their phonological bodies but differ in their orthographic bodies. The candidate and her doctoral advisor have shown that feedback inconsistent words are harder to recognize (in a lexical decision task) than are feedback consistent words. This phenomenon parallels what the candidate refers to as the traditional """"""""feedforward consistency effect,"""""""" in which words whose orthographic bodies can be pronounced more than one way (e.g., PINT and MINT) are harder to recognize than words whose orthographic bodies can only be pronounced one way (e.g., GLOBE and PROBE). The recently discovered phenomenon of feedback inconsistency affecting visual word recognition is a striking demonstration of the role of phonology in reading. Moreover, identifying these feedback inconsistent words helps clarify the often tenuous finding of other phonological effects reported in the literature (perhaps attributable to a failure to control for these types of items in previous experiments).
| Vanhoy, M; Van Orden, G C (2001) Pseudohomophones and word recognition. Mem Cognit 29:522-9 |
