Interdependence of Form and Function in Cognitive Systems Explains Perception of Printed Words

Perception is described within a complex systems framework that includes several constructs: resonance, attractors, subsymbols, and design principles. This framework was anticipated in J. J. Gibson's ecological approach ( M. T. Turvey & C. Carello, 1981 ), but it is extended to cognitive phenomena by assuming experimential realism instead of ecological realism. The framework is applied in this article to explain phonologic mediation in reading and a complex array of published naming and lexical decision data. The full account requires only two design principles: covariant learning and self-consistency. Nonetheless, it organizes and explains a vast empirical literature on printed word perception.