The goal of this project is to advance our understanding of the cognitive and brain mechanisms that underlie written language. The proposed research addresses three sets of issues regarding the basic architecture of the spelling system and one regarding the nature of our knowledge of word spellings. Issues of fundamental architecture are: (1) do writers need to access the spoken form of a word in order to retrieve its spelling? (2) are the same word and letter-shape representations used in spelling and reading? (3) what is the nature of the interaction between specific cognitive components of the spelling system? The question concerning our knowledge of word spellings is: (4) what is the internal structure of graphemic representations? Three methodologies are proposed: (a) detailed case studies of individuals who have suffered neurological damage, (b) the study of unimpaired normal individuals and (c) analysis of the performance of individuals in whom temporary, reversible deficits are created by stimulation of the cortex via electrodes (implanted for clinical purposes) resting on the brain's surface. The proposed studies should generate a basis for the development of more detailed theories of how the human mind/brain accomplishes the task of written language production.
| Tainturier, M J; Rapp, B C (2004) Complex graphemes as functional spelling units: evidence from acquired dysgraphia. Neurocase 10:122-31 |
| Rapp, B; Goldrick, M (2000) Discreteness and interactivity in spoken word production. Psychol Rev 107:460-99 |
| Hillis, A E; Rapp, B C; Caramazza, A (1999) When a rose is a rose in speech but a tulip in writing. Cortex 35:337-56 |
