Serial and strategic effects in reading aloud

M. Coltheart and K. Rastle (1994) reported that the size of the regularity effect on word-naming latency decreases across position of irregularity, implicating a serial process in reading aloud. In response to criticism by D. C. Plaut, J. L. McClelland, M. S. Seidenberg, and K. Patterson (1996), these results were replicated with monosyllabic words that had been controlled for consistency. In a second experiment, participants named nonword- or regular-word targets mixed with either first-position irregular fillers or third-position irregular fillers. Target naming was slowed when first-position irregular fillers were present, compared with target naming when third-position irregular fillers were present. These data suggest that participants can slow use of the nonlexical route if faced with very costly exception words. Simulations using the dual-route cascaded model (M. Coltheart, B. Curtis, P. Atkins, & M. Haller, 1993) are presented.