The pseudohomophone effect in written word processing: An eye-tracking investigation

In 2014, we published a paper on written word processing in dyslexic versus typical readers (see Section 7). The paper was groundbreaking in that we used a novel eye-tracking method to investigate the question of whether dyslexic readers differ from normal readers in the speed and accuracy of distinguishing different types of English words from non-words that varied in the degree to which they resembled actual words of the English language. One effect that was completely absent in our results was the so-called ‘pseudohomophone effect’, i.e., the previously reported finding that non-words like “lepht”(which sound like real words) are more difficult to reject than non-words like “lesht” (which sound unfamiliar). The aim of the present follow-up study is to find out whether the absence of this pseudohomophone effect was due to our new methodology or due to the stimuli used. This could have important implications for the diagnostic value of our eye-tracking method for dylexia research.