Automatic activation of phonology in silent reading is parallel: Evidence from beginning and skilled readers

The picture–word interference paradigm was used to shed new light on the debate concerning slow serial versus fast parallel activation of phonology in silent reading. Prereaders, beginning readers (Grades 1–4), and adults named pictures that had words printed on them. Words and pictures shared phonology either at the beginnings of words (e.g., DOLL–DOG) or at the ends of words (e.g., FOG–DOG). The results showed that phonological overlap between primes and targets facilitated picture naming. This facilitatory effect was present even in beginning readers. More important, from Grade 1 onward, end-related facilitation always was as strong as beginning-related facilitation. This result suggests that, from the beginning of reading, the implicit and automatic activation of phonological codes during silent reading is not serial but rather parallel.