The connectionist dual process (CDP) approach to modelling reading aloud

Abstract

This paper reviews the Connectionist Dual Process (CDP) approach to modelling reading aloud, from the computational principles that motivate the model's connectionist dual-route architecture to the most recent developments guided by a nested incremental modelling strategy. New simulations based on a greatly simplified, feedforward version of the model (ffCDP+) demonstrate that the models' success in accounting for key phenomena in word naming relies on the nature of its sublexical route. The results with ffCDP+, where the parameter-heavy, interactive lexical route is turned into a simple frequency-weighted activation of lexical phonology, show that the two-layer associative network of phonological assembly is the core component in CDP+ and highlight the intrinsic modularity of the model. Further developments of the model and some directions for future research are discussed.

Keywords:

• Reading aloud
• Word naming
• Computational modelling
• Connectionist models
• Neural networks

Acknowledgements

The CDP Web site can be found at http://ccnl.psy.unipd.it/CDP.html. This study was supported by a grant from the European Research Council (No. 210922-GENMOD).