One Second of Reading: a Model by Philip Gough
I. AN INTRODUCTION
Suppose the eye of a moderately skilled adult reader (henceforth, THE READER) were to fall on this sentence, and that he were to read it aloud.
- One second after his initial fixation, only the first word will have been uttered. But during that second, a number of events will have transpired in the mind of the Reader. If we knew the train of events, we would know about the different reading processes. If we knew these processes, we would know what the child must learn to become a READER. II. PURPOSE OF THE PAPER
- First, it tries to describe the sequence of events that transpire in one second of reading, in order to suggest the nature of the processes that link them.
- Second, it attempts to relate this description to some facts about the acquisition of reading.
- The description of chain of events is intended to be exhaustive in conviction that the complexity of the reading process cannot be fully appreciated. Thus, it is detailed by choice, speculative by necessity, and almost certainly flawed.
III. THE READING PROCESS
- The Reading process begins with an eye fixation. The Reader’s eyes focus on a point slightly indented from the beginning of the line. They remain on the fixation for some 250msec. They will sweep 1-4 degrees of visual angle, around 10-12 letter spaces to the right, consuming 10-23msec, and a new fixation will begin.
- When the initial fixation is achieved, a visual pattern is reflected onto the retina. This sets in motion a complicated sequence of activity in the visual system, finishing in the formation of an ICON.
IV. ICONIC REPRESENTATION
- Reading begins through cognitive and visual processes. The icon is a central event, presumably corresponding to neural activity in the striate cortex and it is an “unidentified” or “pre-categorical” visual image, a set of bars, slits, edges, curves, angles, and breaks.
- Even though the icon contains any form of content, iconic buffer has a substantial
Suppose the eye of a moderately skilled adult reader (henceforth, THE READER) were to fall on this sentence, and that he were to read it aloud.
- One second after his initial fixation, only the first word will have been uttered. But during that second, a number of events will have transpired in the mind of the Reader. If we knew the train of events, we would know about the different reading processes. If we knew these processes, we would know what the child must learn to become a READER. II. PURPOSE OF THE PAPER
- First, it tries to describe the sequence of events that transpire in one second of reading, in order to suggest the nature of the processes that link them.
- Second, it attempts to relate this description to some facts about the acquisition of reading.
- The description of chain of events is intended to be exhaustive in conviction that the complexity of the reading process cannot be fully appreciated. Thus, it is detailed by choice, speculative by necessity, and almost certainly flawed.
III. THE READING PROCESS
- The Reading process begins with an eye fixation. The Reader’s eyes focus on a point slightly indented from the beginning of the line. They remain on the fixation for some 250msec. They will sweep 1-4 degrees of visual angle, around 10-12 letter spaces to the right, consuming 10-23msec, and a new fixation will begin.
- When the initial fixation is achieved, a visual pattern is reflected onto the retina. This sets in motion a complicated sequence of activity in the visual system, finishing in the formation of an ICON.
IV. ICONIC REPRESENTATION
- Reading begins through cognitive and visual processes. The icon is a central event, presumably corresponding to neural activity in the striate cortex and it is an “unidentified” or “pre-categorical” visual image, a set of bars, slits, edges, curves, angles, and breaks.
- Even though the icon contains any form of content, iconic buffer has a substantial