Syllable coding in printed-word recognition by children and adults

Studied phonological coding in printed-word recognition in English by examining the use made of syllable information by skilled and less skilled readers in 2 experiments using 32 2nd graders and 81 undergraduates. Stimuli were bisyllabic frequent nouns. Syllable coding was used by the less-skilled 2nd graders but not by either the better 2nd graders or adults in lexical decision tasks. However, adults did make use of syllable information when the direct use of letter information was slowed by presenting items in alternating upper- and lowercase letters. Differences between children and adults in their use of the syllable information in pseudowords are interpreted as indicating that for skilled adult readers, the major focus of activity in word recognition is at the letter level. For immature readers, the process of word recognition is less analytic and involves a more extensive lexical search based on a reduced amount of letter information. The results are discussed in terms of an interactive model of reading. (15 ref)