The Role of Information in Visual Word Recognition: A Perceptually-Constrained Connectionist Account

Raquel G. Alhama, Noam Siegelman, Ram Frost, Blair C. Armstrong

Abstract: Proficient readers typically fixate near the center of a word, with a slight bias towards word onset. We explore a novel account of this phenomenon based on combining information theory with perceptual constraints in a connectionist model of visual word recognition. This account posits that the amount of information-content available for word identification varies across fixation locations and across languages. These differences contribute to the overall fixation location bias in different languages, make the novel prediction that certain words are more readily identified when fixating at an atypical fixation location, and predict specific cross-linguistic differences. We tested these predictions across several simulations in English and Hebrew, and in a behavioral experiment. The results confirmed that the bias to fixate closer to word onset aligns with reducing uncertainty in the visual signal, that some words are more readily identified at atypical fixation locations, and that these effects vary across languages.