sallya@psych.usyd.edu.au
Username: sallya@psych.usyd.edu.auParticipant details
Research InterestsMy research is concerned with the development and implementation of lexical processing and its relationship to reading skill: how do skilled language users represent and retrieve their knowledge about the words; how do these cognitive capabilities develop; and how does lexical processing contribute to reading skill. My major focus is on written language processing. However, since reading skill is usually “grafted on” to a functional spoken language system, understanding reading requires investigation of relationships between spoken and written language forms and of the similarities and differences between the cognitive processes underlying perception and comprehension in the two modalities. My research has focused primarily on English, but I have also collaborated in research projects comparing speakers of different languages to determine how the characteristics of different writing systems, and their relationship to phonology and semantics, influences language processing. My most recent research program moves beyond processing of isolated words to investigate how lexical processing contributes to comprehension of sentences and text. Skilled readers of English appear to process text essentially word-by-word – a strategy that may arise, in part, from the crucial importance of word order to English grammar. I am currently using a variety of different methodologies - including monitoring of readers’ eye movements and measures of sentence comprehension and recall - to investigate how readers use the outcomes of lexical processing to construct an interpretation of sentences and text.
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