Size and case of type as stimuli in reading

The role of size and case of print have provoked a number of experiments in the recent past. One strongly argued position is that the reader abstracts a canonical representation from a string of letters that renders its variations irrelevant and then carries out recognition procedures on that abstraction. An alternate view argues that the reader proceeds by analyzing the print, taking account of its manifold physical attributes such as length of words, their orientation, shape, and the like. In the present experiments size and case were varied in several ways, and the task was also varied to include both silent reading and reading aloud. Clear evidence for shape-sensing operations was brought forward, but they were shown to be optional rather than obligatory processes, used when it served the reader's purpose to do so. However, it was also shown that such skills, normally useful, could be tricked into operating even when their presence hindered the reader's performance. The conclusion is drawn that reading goes forward in many ways at once rather than through an orderly sequence of operations, consistent with the reader's skills and the requirements of the task. Overarching theories of performance seem premature in the absence of detailed analysis of task components.