Aye, aye, aye, aye: orthography enhances rapid word reading in an exploratory study

Rapid Word Reading, a novel word-reading efficiency measure, was used to determine if articulations or processing times associated with reading the word ʹayeʹ were enhanced through the phonological or orthographic qualities contained in the preceding word. In the experiment, ʹayeʹ followed either an identical ʹayeʹ, the homophones ʹIʹ or ʹeyeʹ or high-frequency (HF) unrelated English words. The words that preceded ʹayeʹ were chosen to provide a graduated degree of phonological and orthographic information available to enhance the efficiency of recognising the following word. Semantically, phonologically, and orthographically independent high-frequency words preceded ʹayeʹ and served as a baseline measure of the articulation and processing times of ʹayeʹ. ʹIʹ preceded ʹayeʹ to provide enhanced recognition through phonological association alone. Phonological and partial orthographic associations were provided by ʹeyeʹ before ʹayeʹ, and complete phonological and orthographic associations were provided by ʹayeʹ before ʹayeʹ. Repeated measures analysis showed that ʹayeʹ was processed fastest when it followed an identical ʹayeʹ. The processing time enhancement for this condition was significantly faster than all other conditions. Additionally, the mean articulation duration of ʹayeʹ was significantly slower when ʹayeʹ followed an identical ʹayeʹ than when it followed HF words. The findings documented the importance of separating phonological and orthographic information in English homophones.