Sublexical representations and the ‘front end’ of visual word recognition

In this introduction to the special issue on sublexical representations in visual word recognition, we briefly discuss the importance of research that attempts to describe the functional units that intervene between low-level perceptual processes and access to whole-word representations in long-term memory. We will comment on how the different contributions to this issue add to our growing knowledge of the role of orthographic, phonological, and morphological information in the overall task of assigning the appropriate meaning to a given string of letters during reading. We also show how the empirical findings reported in this special issue present a challenge for current computational models of visual word recognition. Research on visual word recognition has occupied a central position in cognitive psychology ever since the birth of this discipline many decades ago. Research has blossomed over this period, and the field still attracts a considerable amount of attention as reflected by the number of talks on the topic at international conferences. In spite of the amount of attention that this field has received, a great deal of empirical and theoretical work is still necessary before all the intricacies of the complex process of printed word perception have been sorted out. One key issue, that we believe deserves more attention, is the role of sublexical units in the process of mapping form onto meaning with printed word stimuli. The goal of this special issue, which grew out of a symposium on sublexical units in visual word recognition organised by the first author during the 8th AMLa