Phonemic Stage Not Necessary for Reading

Abstract

Subjects can classify, as not making sense, phrases which sound as though they make sense, e.g. “tie the not”, as quickly as other phrases which do not even sound right, although they make more errors on the former. When asked whether or not phrases sound sensible regardless of how the phrases look, they are faster and make fewer errors on the phrases that look sensible as well as sound sensible. It is concluded that meaning can be efficiently derived from a visual analysis of text without the use of an intermediate phonemic code, or “inner speech”, although such a code may be used some of the time.