Interdependence of form and function in cognitive systems explains perception of printed words.
Perception is described within a complex systems framework that includes several constructs: resonance, attractors, subsymbols, and design principles. This framework was anticipated in J. J. Gibson's ecological approach (M. T. Turvey & C. Carello, 1981), but it is extended to cognitive phenomena by assuming experiential realism instead of ecological realism. The framework is applied in this article to explain phonologic mediation in reading and a complex array of published naming and lexical decision data. The full account requires only two design principles: covariant learning and self-consistency. Nonetheless, it organizes and explains a vast empirical literature on printed word perception.
Department of Psychology, Arizona State University, Tempe 85287-1104.
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Van Orden
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Goldinger
D003071:Cognition; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D010700:Phonetics; D011932:Reading; D014796:Visual Perception; D014825:Vocabulary