Gernsbacher, Morton Ann. (1993). Less skilled readers have less efficient suppression mechanisms. Psychological Science, 4(5), 294:298.

Most research in psycholinguistics aims to understand the basic processing mechanisms involved in speaking and understanding language, and the representational system that underlies these abilities. It is assumed that most people share the same basic cognitive architecture, but it is also recognized that people differ in their linguistic abilities. This raises the question of how the processing mechanisms may differ between individuals, and within a different individual over time (i.e. as you get older).

This paper represents one attempt to explain individual differences in reading ability. Another area that has received a lot of attention is the idea that individual differences in working memory predict differences in language processing ability (e.g., Daneman and Carpenter, 1983).

References:

Daneman, M., and Carpenter, P. A. (1983). Individual Differences in Integrating Information Between and Within Sentences. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 9(4), 561-584.

Reading Questions:

1. There are several different kinds of ambiguities in written language that lead to the potential for activating both correct and incorrect lexical items. What are some of the kinds of ambiguities discussed in this paper?

2. What kinds of information are likely to be activated when you read a word?