Cognitive Neuropsychology of Reading

Abstract

Lexical process of reading is complex and requires interdisciplinary approaches and various methodologies to understand it.　This paper reviews what model-theoretic approaches have revealed in cognitive neuropsychology and explores future perspectives.　The dual-route model, in which lexical and sublexical procedures are used to convert letter sequences into phonological sequences, has been proposed and extensively explored in interpreting both reading processes of normal adults and patients with different types of acquired dyslexia. In recent years, computer simulations have been used to explain the various characteristics of reading errors in dyslexics.　This advances in computer simulation research, especially from the perspective of connectionist approaches, raises various issues regarding conventional single-case methodology, the principle of double-dissociation, and relationship between brain and mind.　Computational models play an important role in understanding the structure of the normal cognitive system and the mechanisms of reading disorders.　It is expected that computational models make rapid progress in our understanding of language functions related to meaning.