A prelexical basis for letter-by-letter reading: A case study

Abstract

Letter and lexical processing Operations were examined in an experimental case study of a letter-by-letter (LBL) reader. In a whole-report paradigm, lexical processing ability was shown to be largely intact by greater recognition accuracy for letters in words relative to pseudowords or nonwords. In a letter matching task, reaction time measures indicated impaired performance under simultaneous exposure conditions and in cross-case matching. The LBL reading deficit is discussed in terms of the inability to form abstract character representations of letters efficiently and in parallel.