An Investigation of pure alexia : evidence against 'Letter-by-Letter' reading
Date
1996
Authors
Johnson, Shannon Alice
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Abstract
The relationship between initial lexical activation and the compensatory reading strategy observed in pure alexia was investigated. Lexical decision and naming were examined in three patients with pure alexia (DM, IH, and JL) using orthographic and lexical variables selected from two models of normal reading (Interactive-Activation and Cohort). The variables included word frequency, neighborhood/cohort size, neighborhood frequency, number of positions yielding cohorts, and unique point (i.e. point of resolution). Patients were affected by the same variables as the normal readers and their patterns of performance, although slower, were also similar. All subjects demonstrated a facilitatory effect of high word frequency and large neighborhood size. Results also indicated that the compensatory strategy is not 'letter by letter' or left to right. Patients with pure alexia appear to achieve normal lexical activation and then engage in a compensatory reading strategy which is guided by this initial activation.