Dual route

Cards (13)

  • Dual route theory - Coltheart 1978, 1993, 2001 -
    • assembled route evidence - Van Orden 1987
    • both routes available - which use?
    • determine if target word belonged to given category - some homophones
    • results showed processing homophones = more difficult, particularly for low-frequency words
    • = assembled route used for less familiar words = support existence of multiple reading pathways
  • Dual route theory - Coltheart 1978, 1993, 2001 -
    Dual route evidence
    • Homophone effect occurs mainly in low frequency words (Jared & Seidenburg, 1991)
    • found homophone effect - similar -sounding words cause difficulty in word recognition - mainly low-frequency words
    • Low-frequency = processed through assembled route
    • high-frequency words primarily use direct route
  • Dual route evidence - Jared & Seidenburg 1991 - suggests
    • low-frequency words with regular spelling-to-sound rules recognized faster irregular patterns
    • = suggests word recognition involves competition between routes -
    • direct route typically prevailing for high-frequency words
    • assembled route for low
  • Dual route model - Coltheart 2001 

    • bulk of recognition takes direct route (quickly accessing stored information about familiar words) - weak phonological theory
    • rule based translation - slow, activates wrong phonology for irregular words
  • Dual route model - Ferrand & Grainger 1994
    • evidence masked phonological & orthographic priming
    • higher facillitation for orthographic priming with small exposure (20 msec)
    • same at 30
    • significantly higher facillitation for phonological priming at larger exposure (60)
  • Dual route model - Ferrand & Grainger 1994 - suggests
    • duration of exposure to phonological & orthographic primes influences facilitation effects on processing
    • visual representation of word forms may play crucial role in early stages of word recognition
    • highlights importance of phonological representations in later stages of word recognition
    • phonological processing may require more time for effective integration into cognitive processes
  • Dual route model - Ferrand & Grainger 1994 - dual-lexicon interactive activation model - p1


    • Dual-Lexicon Model - 2 separate mental lexicons for written & spoken word processing
    • Interactive Activation - Bidirectional activation spread between different processing levels
  • Dual route model - Ferrand & Grainger 1994 - dual-lexicon interactive activation model - p2

    • Sublexical Units: Small language processing units; orthographic units activated by visual input, phonological units by auditory input.
    • Mutual Facilitation: Activation of orthographic units facillitates phonological units, and vice versa
  • Dual route model - Ferrand & Grainger 1994 - dual-lexicon interactive activation model - p3 

    • Lexicons: Separate repositories of word representations - orthographic and phonological
    • Connections: Inhibitory connections within each lexicon, inhibiting competing units; excitatory connections between orthographic and phonological representations of same word
  • dual route theories & dyslexia - Dyslexia or Specific Reading Disability


    • No obvious cause for lack of reading mastery
    • Not general intellectual impairment, poor vision, lack of opportunity or motivation
    • 4% of population diagnosed with developmental dyslexia
    Common view that dyslexia due to visual processing problems
    • Information “turned around” – seeing or producing reversed letters
    • Not a good cue for dyslexia
  • Dual route theories & dyslexia - what can dual route theories tell us about dyslexia
    • 2 primary kind - some mixed
    Phonological - 60%
    • Trouble with assembled route
    • Normal reading of high-frequency words
    • Very poor on low-frequency words
  • Dual route theories & dyslexia - Case study (Snowling et al., 1994)
    • Adolescent boy
    • Normal for high frequency words
    • Much worse for lower frequency words
    • Treatment: intensive training in spelling -to- sound rules
  • Dual route theories & dyslexia - Surface
    • 40%
    • Sound out all words laboriously – as beginning readers
    • Problems in visual perception or memory prevents bottom-up visual processing of characters