Individual differences in reading aloud: A mega-study, item effects, and some models

• Individual differences in word naming were examined in 100 participants.
• Data were analysed for key word property effects, and modelled with DRC and CDP+.
• Neither model recovered the full pattern of effects and correlations among them.
• We separated the locus of frequency and neighbourhood effects in a new model based on DRC.
• The new model captured more key correlations in the data.

Normal individual differences are rarely considered in the modelling of visual word recognition – with item response time effects and neuropsychological disorders being given more emphasis – but such individual differences can inform and test accounts of the processes of reading. We thus had 100 participants read aloud words selected to assess theoretically important item response time effects on an individual basis. Using two major models of reading aloud – DRC and CDP+ – we estimated numerical parameters to best model each individual’s response times to see if this would allow the models to capture the effects, individual differences in them and the correlations among these individual differences. It did not. We therefore created an alternative model, the DRC-FC, which successfully captured more of the correlations among individual differences, by modifying the locus of the frequency effect. Overall, our analyses indicate that (i) even after accounting for individual differences in general speed, several other individual difference in reading remain significant; and (ii) these individual differences provide critical tests of models of reading aloud. The database thus offers a set of important constraints for future modelling of visual word recognition, and is a step towards integrating such models with other knowledge about individual differences in reading.