Content area
Abstract
Models of visual word recognition that have adopted the general interactive activation (IA) framework (e.g., Coltheart, Curtis, Atkins, & Haller, 1993; Coltheart et al., 2001; Grainger & Jacobs, 1996) assume that visual word recognition processes are fully interactive such that activation spreads in both the forward and backward directions. The current study was designed to examine whether or not individual and developmental differences exist in the interactivity of certain visual word recognition processes. Specifically, using a mediated priming paradigm (see Reimer, Brown, & Lorsbach, 2001), two experiments were conducted to determine whether or not the influence of semantic processing on orthographic and phonological processing depends on perceptual ability and age. Third grade, sixth grade, and adult participants were tested. Orthographically mediated inhibition effects were found only with high perceptual ability readers, regardless of age. Furthermore, phonologically mediated inhibition effects were found only with young children. Based on these results, an IA account of the Context x Age/Reading Skill interaction was developed, as well as an IA account of developmental and individual differences in mediated priming. The results of the present study suggest that the interactivity of certain visual word recognition processes change as reading skill improves across development.
