Dual route and connectionist models of reading: an overview

Abstract

Reading researchers seek to discover exactly what kinds of information-processing activities go on in our minds when we read; to discover what the structure and organization is of the cognitive system skilled readers have acquired from learning to read. Little is known about how the most elaborate aspects of this system work, but much has been learned about its basic building blocks such as letter identification, visual word recognition and knowledge of letter-sound rules. I contrast two approaches to theorizing about these basic reading components, the dual route approach and the connectionist approach, and offer reasons for believing that the dual route approach is to be preferred.