RATED A+ | NEW 2026
Typoglycemia
the idea that the human mind processes words as a whole; Not true b/c we use top down
processing to comprehend lang using context
Experience with English
English language teaches us that only certain combo of le ers can follow or proceed other
combos of le ers allowing us to easier ID target le ers or words
Posi onal constraints
prior knowledge of the order of le ers in words helps you fill in the missing informa on
Word Superiority Effect Hypothesis
context present in the word will facilitate le er recogni on, detect words easier when they are
presented as a part of words
Reicher Wheeler Paradigm
par cipants had the task of ID le er in cued posi on when presented in: isola on, words,
pseudowords, or random le er strings (nonwords)
reicher wheeler results
faster to iden fy le ers in words/pseudowords, le ers in isola on, & le ers in nonwords
(slowest)
Proofreading
we use top down processing, when edi ng you read your paper by what you want/think you
said instead of what you actually said
word v le er presented
Word presented: ac vates feature, le er, & word detectors, increasing speed of final
recogni on v Le er presented: ac vates feature, & le er detectors = less ac va on
Phonological Dyslexia
, difficulty reading pseudowords, short-term memory limits, low phonological awareness, slower
rapid naming
dyslexic experiment results
Dyslexic children & reading age controls show similar word superiority effects, Dyslexic children
have difficulty reading aloud pseudowords revealing impaired sub-lexical transla on
Long term memory
a network of associa ons: words o2en co-occur in memory & are strongly associated, think of
one word the other is automa cally triggered
Seman c memory
automa c access to word meanings, general word knowledge, & factual info v episodic
memory- personal memories of events
Seman c networks
our knowledge is organized in this way, array of nodes represen ng concepts & links that
transmit ac va on btw nodes
Typical effect
typical members of category are responded faster to, less distance = faster associa on
Priming effect
reac on mes are faster for related than unrelated words, Ex: faster to "yes" to doctor when
nurse is a word
Connec onist model of seman c memory
learning involves strengthening or weakening of connec ons by changing connec on weights
Latent seman c analysis (LSA)
rela ons based on how o2en words occur in the presence of other words
word associa ons in latent seman c model
Words associa ons are based on cooccurrence or proximity, model is like a road map: charts
comparisons
basics of latent seman c model