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Updated: Jun 25, 2026

Decomposing the Variance in Reading Comprehension to Reveal the Unique and Common Effects of Language and Decoding
Published on: October 11, 2018
Encoding multiple words simultaneously in reading is implausible
Erik D Reichle1, Simon P Liversedge, Alexander Pollatsek
1University of Pittsburgh, 635 LRDC, 3939 O'Hara St., Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA. reichle@pitt.edu
Abstract:
Several prominent models of reading posit that attention is distributed to support the parallel lexical processing of multiple words. We contend that the auxiliary assumptions underlying this attention-gradient hypothesis are not well founded. Here, we address three specific issues related to the ongoing debate about attention allocation during reading: (i) why the attention-gradient hypothesis is widely endorsed, (ii) why processing several words in parallel in reading is implausible and (iii) why attention must be allocated to only one word at a time. Full consideration of these arguments supports the hypothesis that attention is allocated serially during reading.
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