Some Bodies are Easier to Read: The Effect of Consistency and Regularity on Children's Reading
Abstract
Patterson and Morton (1985) proposed a model for the skilled reading of words and non-words that accommodates two non-lexical routines. One is the grapheme-to-phoneme correspondence system which utilizes the regularity of letter to sound correspondences for single letters and digraphs. The other is a system of “bodies”—the vowel and terminal letters of a monomorphemic, monosyllabic word. The idea of the body segment, as Patterson and Morton use it, is to capture consistency effects in reading aloud—that is, the fact that the spelling-sound pattern of words with similar written endings to the target affects the speed and accuracy of its reading. In this study consistency and regularity are examined as separate factors in children's reading, by devising stimuli in accordance with the different types of three-letter ending that are proposed within the body sub-system. A group of 87 children aged seven to nine (reading age range: 6;6 to 13;7) was sub-divided according to reading ability and given words and non-words to read aloud. In all the children, performance was affected by body type for both words and non-words, but the better readers were most affected. The implications of these results for a radical distributed model of reading acquisition (Seidenberg & McClelland, 1989) are considered.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
In development, for regular words, consistent and consensus items are acquired earlier than ambiguous ones.
“In development, Laxon, Masterson, and Coltheart (1991) have shown that, for regular words, consistent ( pink , all -ink ) and consensus ( hint , mostlyas in mint , but cf. pint ) items are acquired earlier than ambiguous ones ( cove vs. love , move ).”
From FREQUENCY EFFECTS IN LANGUAGE PROCESSING: A Review with Implications for Theories of Implicit and Explicit Language Acquisition (2002) · cites this paper as Laxon, Masterson, and Coltheart, 1991
Irregular words in deviant gangs are acquired earlier than ambiguous ones.
“Similarly, irregular words-those in deviant gangs in which the several items sharing that rime are all pronounced in the same irregular fashion (e.g., look , book , cook , etc., or calm , balm , palm )-are acquired earlier than ambiguous ones ( love ).”
From FREQUENCY EFFECTS IN LANGUAGE PROCESSING: A Review with Implications for Theories of Implicit and Explicit Language Acquisition (2002) · cites this paper as Laxon et al., 1991
Cites
A distributed, developmental model of word recognition and naming.
Seidenberg, M. S., & McClelland, J. L. (1989) · Psychological Review · doi:10.1037/0033-295x.96.4.523 · Cited by 3,909 · see citing works
Reading Research Advances in Theory and Practice
Besner, D., Waller, T. G., & MacKinnon, G. E. (1985) · Cited by 1,618 · see citing works
Beneath the Surface of Developmental Dyslexia
Frith, U. (2017) · Routledge eBooks · doi:10.4324/9781315108346-18 · Cited by 1,532 · see citing works
Rumelhart, D. E., & McClelland, J. L. (1982) · Psychological Review · doi:10.1037/0033-295x.89.1.60 · Cited by 1,530 · see citing works
Attention and Performance XII: The Psychology of Reading
Coltheart, M. (1987) · Cited by 1,195 · see citing works
(1978) · Medical Entomology and Zoology · Cited by 1,064 · see citing works
Patterns of paralexia: A psycholinguistic approach
Marshall, J. C., & Newcombe, F. (1973) · Journal of Psycholinguistic Research · doi:10.1007/bf01067101 · Cited by 1,039 · see citing works
Hampson, P. J. (1987) · Biological Psychology · doi:10.1016/0301-0511(87)90026-3 · Cited by 1,037 · see citing works
Hinton, G. E. (2018) · KiltHub Repository · doi:10.1184/r1/6604925 · Cited by 1,029 · see citing works
The organization and activation of orthographic knowledge in reading aloud.
Glushko, R. J. (1979) · Journal of Experimental Psychology Human Perception & Performance · doi:10.1037/0096-1523.5.4.674 · Cited by 938 · see citing works
Strategies of Information Processing
D., C. P., & Underwood, G. (1980) · The American Journal of Psychology · doi:10.2307/1422114 · Cited by 861 · see citing works
When does irregular spelling or pronunciation influence word recognition?
Seidenberg, M. S., Waters, G. S., Barnes, M. A., & Tanenhaus, M. K. (1984) · Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior · doi:10.1016/s0022-5371(84)90270-6 · Cited by 664 · see citing works
Vachek, J. (1971) · Language · doi:10.2307/412200 · Cited by 604 · see citing works
Surface dyslexia. Neuropsychological and cognitive studies of phonological reading
Lavorel, P. M. (1987) · Neuropsychologia · doi:10.1016/0028-3932(87)90108-4 · Cited by 586 · see citing works
The Structure of English Orthography
Venezky, R. L. (1970) · Mouton eBooks · doi:10.1515/9783110804478 · Cited by 493 · see citing works
Frequency and neighborhood effects on lexical access: Activation or search?
Andrews, S. (1989) · Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition · doi:10.1037/0278-7393.15.5.802 · Cited by 468 · see citing works
An invited article: Phonological recoding and reading acquisition
Jorm, A. F., & Share, D. L. (1983) · Applied Psycholinguistics · doi:10.1017/s0142716400004380 · Cited by 447 · see citing works
Parallel Distributed Processing: Implications for Psychology and Neurobiology
Wolters, G. (1990) · Trends in Neurosciences · doi:10.1016/0166-2236(90)90131-s · Cited by 418 · see citing works
Does reading develop in a sequence of stages?
Stuart, M., & Coltheart, M. (1988) · Cognition · doi:10.1016/0010-0277(88)90038-8 · Cited by 400 · see citing works
Word Frequencies in British and American English
Hofland, K., & Johansson, S. (1985) · Medical Entomology and Zoology · Cited by 302 · see citing works
Conspiracy effects in word pronunciation
Taraban, R., & McClelland, J. L. (1987) · Journal of Memory and Language · doi:10.1016/0749-596x(87)90105-7 · Cited by 301 · see citing works
Children’s and adults’ use of spelling-sound information in three reading tasks
Waters, G. S., Seidenberg, M. S., & Bruck, M. (1984) · Memory & Cognition · doi:10.3758/bf03197678 · Cited by 248 · see citing works
Phonological recoding: Is the regularity effect consistent?
Andrews, S. (1982) · Memory & Cognition · doi:10.3758/bf03202439 · Cited by 244 · see citing works
Orthographic Analogies and Reading Development
Goswami, U. (1988) · The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology Section A · doi:10.1080/02724988843000113 · Cited by 232 · see citing works
On the association between connectionism and data: Are a few words necessary?
Besner, D., Twilley, L. C., McCann, R. S., & Seergobin, K. N. (1990) · Psychological Review · doi:10.1037/0033-295x.97.3.432 · Cited by 219 · see citing works
One Process, Not Two, in Reading Aloud: Lexical Analogies Do the Work of Non-Lexical Rules
Kay, J., & Marcel, A. J. (1981) · The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology Section A · doi:10.1080/14640748108400800 · Cited by 217 · see citing works
Cognitive neuropsychology and the study of reading
Coltheart, M. (1985) · Attention and performance · Cited by 211 · see citing works
Beginning reading without phonology
Seymour, P. H. K., & Elder, L. (1986) · Cognitive Neuropsychology · doi:10.1080/02643298608252668 · Cited by 207 · see citing works
Acquisition and use of spelling-sound correspondences in reading
Backman, J. E., Bruck, M., Hébert, M., & Seidenberg, M. S. (1984) · Journal of Experimental Child Psychology · doi:10.1016/0022-0965(84)90022-5 · Cited by 207 · see citing works
Seymour, P. H. K., & Macgregor, C. J. (1984) · Cognitive Neuropsychology · doi:10.1080/02643298408252016 · Cited by 202 · see citing works
Phonological dyslexia and dysgraphia—a developmental analysis
Snowling, M., Stackhouse, J., & Rack, J. P. (1986) · Cognitive Neuropsychology · doi:10.1080/02643298608253362 · Cited by 182 · see citing works
Empirically derived probabilities for grapheme-to-phoneme correspondences in english
Berndt, R. S., Reggia, J. A., & Mitchum, C. C. (1987) · Behavior Research Methods, Instruments, & Computers · doi:10.3758/bf03207663 · Cited by 178 · see citing works
Parallel distributed processing : implications for cognition and development
McClelland, J. L., & Project., A. I. A. P. (2018) · doi:10.1184/r1/6617408 · Cited by 160 · see citing works
Word recognition in early reading: A review of the direct and indirect access hypotheses
Barron, R. W. (1986) · Cognition · doi:10.1016/0010-0277(86)90006-5 · Cited by 122 · see citing works
Connections and disconnections: Acquired dyslexia in a computational model of reading processes.
Patterson, K. E., Seidenberg, M. S., & McClelland, J. L. (1989) · Cited by 120 · see citing works
LAXON, V. J., Coltheart, V., & Keating, C. (1988) · British Journal of Educational Psychology · doi:10.1111/j.2044-8279.1988.tb00882.x · Cited by 113 · see citing works
Self-citationThe GLIM system release 3: generalised linear interactive modelling manual
Baker, R. J., & Nelder, J. A. (1978) · Cited by 104 · see citing works
Do children use similar processes to read and spell words?
Waters, G. S., Bruck, M., & Seidenberg, M. S. (1985) · Journal of Experimental Child Psychology · doi:10.1016/0022-0965(85)90054-2 · Cited by 102 · see citing works
Resclving inconsistency: A computational model of word naming
Brown, G. D. A. (1987) · Journal of Memory and Language · doi:10.1016/0749-596x(87)90059-3 · Cited by 101 · see citing works
The Neuropsychology of Language
(1976) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-1-4684-2292-4 · Cited by 86 · see citing works
Word recognition processes of poor and disabled readers: Do they necessarily differ?
Seidenberg, M. S., Bruck, M., Fornarolo, G., & Backman, J. E. (1985) · Applied Psycholinguistics · doi:10.1017/s0142716400006093 · Cited by 55 · see citing works
Coltheart, M. (2016) · Routledge eBooks · doi:10.4324/9781315630427-34 · Cited by 42 · see citing works
Further explorations of the consistency effect in word and nonword pronunciation
Stanhope, N., & Parkin, A. J. (1987) · Memory & Cognition · doi:10.3758/bf03197028 · Cited by 35 · see citing works
CHILDREN'S KNOWLEDGE OF ORTHOGRAPHY IN LEARNING TO READ
Francis, H. (1984) · British Journal of Educational Psychology · doi:10.1111/j.2044-8279.1984.tb00840.x · Cited by 16 · see citing works
Edwards, R. P. A., Gibbon, V., & Mason, S. C. (1964) · Burke eBooks · Cited by 9 · see citing works
Dual-route theory and the consistency effect
Parkin, A. J. (1985) · Behavioral and Brain Sciences · doi:10.1017/s0140525x00045878 · Cited by 5 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
1 of the 47 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Ellis, N. C. (2002) · Studies in Second Language Acquisition · doi:10.1017/s0272263102002024 · Cited by 2,230 · see citing works
Beyond phonological skills: broader language skills contribute to the development of reading
Nation, K., & Snowling, M. J. (2004) · Journal of Research in Reading · doi:10.1111/j.1467-9817.2004.00238.x · Cited by 669 · see citing works
Ziegler, J. C., Stone, G. O., & Jacobs, A. M. (1997) · Behavior Research Methods, Instruments, & Computers · doi:10.3758/bf03210615 · Cited by 277 · see citing works
Speech Perception in Children with Specific Reading Difficulties (Dyslexia)
Adlard, A., & Hazan, V. L. (1998) · The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology Section A · doi:10.1080/713755750 · Cited by 202 · see citing works
Sprenger-Charolles, L., Siegel, L. S., & Bonnet, P. (1998) · Journal of Experimental Child Psychology · doi:10.1006/jecp.1997.2422 · Cited by 168 · see citing works
The Feedback Consistency Effect in Lexical Decision and Naming
Ziegler, J. C., Montant, M., & Jacobs, A. M. (1997) · Journal of Memory and Language · doi:10.1006/jmla.1997.2525 · Cited by 142 · see citing works
Ellis, N. C., & Hooper, A. (2001) · Applied Psycholinguistics · doi:10.1017/s0142716401004052 · Cited by 139 · see citing works
Phonologically mediated access to meaning for Kanji: Is a rows still a rose in Japanese Kanji?
Wydell, T. N., Patterson, K. E., & Humphreys, G. W. (1993) · Journal of Experimental Psychology Learning Memory and Cognition · doi:10.1037//0278-7393.19.3.491 · Cited by 139 · see citing works
Units of Analysis in Nonword Reading: Evidence from Children and Adults
Brown, G. D. A., & Deavers, R. P. (1999) · Journal of Experimental Child Psychology · doi:10.1006/jecp.1999.2502 · Cited by 106 · see citing works
Peereman, R., & Content, A. (1997) · Journal of Memory and Language · doi:10.1006/jmla.1997.2516 · Cited by 105 · see citing works
Is Perception a Two-Way Street? The Case of Feedback Consistency in Visual Word Recognition
Peereman, R., Content, A., & Bonin, P. (1998) · Journal of Memory and Language · doi:10.1006/jmla.1998.2573 · Cited by 84 · see citing works
Neural correlates of orthographic and phonological consistency effects in children
Bolger, D. J., Hornickel, J., Cone, N. E., Burman, D. D., & Booth, J. R. (2007) · Human Brain Mapping · doi:10.1002/hbm.20476 · Cited by 81 · see citing works
Influence of consonantal context on the reading of vowels: Evidence from children
Rebecca Treiman, A., Brett Kessler, A., Zevin, J. D., Bick, S., & Davis, M. (2005) · Journal of Experimental Child Psychology · doi:10.1016/j.jecp.2005.06.008 · Cited by 67 · see citing works
Effects of Consistency and Age of Acquisition on Reading and Spelling among Developing Readers
Weekes, B., Castles, A. E., & Davies, R. A. I. (2006) · Reading and Writing · doi:10.1007/s11145-005-2032-6 · Cited by 60 · see citing works
Phonemic processing problems in developmental phonological dyslexia
Masterson, J., Hazan, V. L., & Wijayatilake, L. (1995) · Cognitive Neuropsychology · doi:10.1080/02643299508251997 · Cited by 55 · see citing works
Self-citationA Small-to-Large Unit Progression in Metaphonological Awareness and Reading?
uncan, L. G. D., Seymour, P. H. K., & Hill, S. (2000) · The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology Section A · doi:10.1080/713755936 · Cited by 53 · see citing works
Connectionism, Phonology, Reading, and Regularity in Developmental Dyslexia
Brown, G. D. A. (1997) · Brain and Language · doi:10.1006/brln.1997.1817 · Cited by 50 · see citing works
Word regularity affects orthographic learning
Wang, H., Castles, A. E., & Nickels, L. (2012) · Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology · doi:10.1080/17470218.2012.672996 · Cited by 49 · see citing works
Peereman, R. (1995) · The European Journal of Cognitive Psychology · doi:10.1080/09541449508402451 · Cited by 46 · see citing works
Metalinguistic awareness and semi-syllabic scripts: Children's spelling errors in Malay
Liow, S. J. R., & Lee, L. C. (2004) · Reading and Writing · doi:10.1023/b:read.0000013833.79570.de · Cited by 44 · see citing works
LAXON, V. J., Masterson, J., & Moran, R. (1994) · Language and Cognitive Processes · doi:10.1080/01690969408402108 · Cited by 40 · see citing works
Self-citationHow does phonological awareness relate to nonword reading skill amongst poor readers?
Duncan, L. G., & Johnston, R. S. (1999) · Reading and Writing · doi:10.1023/a:1007923313914 · Cited by 35 · see citing works
Li, L., Wang, H., Castles, A. E., Hsieh, M.-L., & Marinus, E. (2018) · Cognition · doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2018.02.025 · Cited by 26 · see citing works
Effects of feedforward and feedback consistency on reading and spelling in dyslexia
Davies, R. A. I., & Weekes, B. (2005) · Dyslexia · doi:10.1002/dys.307 · Cited by 22 · see citing works
Assessing Literacy in Children and Adolescents
Hurry, J., & Doctor, E. A. (2006) · Child and Adolescent Mental Health · doi:10.1111/1467-8691.00078-i1 · Cited by 11 · see citing works
Chinese characters: Semantic and phonetic regularity norms for China, Singapore, and Taiwan
Liow, S. J. R., Tng, S. K., & Lee, C. L. (1999) · Behavior Research Methods, Instruments, & Computers · doi:10.3758/bf03207706 · Cited by 11 · see citing works
L'acquisition du langage. Volume II
Colé, P., & Fayol, M. (2000) · Presses Universitaires de France eBooks · doi:10.3917/puf.fayol.2000.02.0151 · Cited by 8 · see citing works
Children's reading of words, pseudohomophones, and other nonwords
LAXON, V. J., Masterson, J., Gallagher, A., & Pay, J. (2002) · The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology Section A · doi:10.1080/02724980143000479 · Cited by 8 · see citing works
Self-citationRimes and superrimes: An exploration of children's disyllabic rhyming skills
Duncan, L. G., Seymour, P. H. K., & Cox, F. M. (2006) · British Journal of Psychology · doi:10.1348/000712606x114598 · Cited by 6 · see citing works
Suárez‐Coalla, P., Castejón, L., Vega-Harwood, M., & Martínez‐García, C. (2023) · Reading and Writing · doi:10.1007/s11145-023-10497-1 · Cited by 5 · see citing works
Hayes, M., & Masterson, J. (2002) · The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology Section A · doi:10.1080/02724980143000460 · Cited by 2 · see citing works
Self-citationSchmalz, X., Mehlhase, H., Schulte‐Körne, G., Moll, K., & Wang, H. (2025) · Scientific Studies of Reading · doi:10.1080/10888438.2025.2550337 · Cited by 2 · see citing works
Empirical Evidence for Domain Name PerformancePreprint
Girotra, K., & Ulrich, K. T. (2010) · SSRN Electronic Journal · doi:10.2139/ssrn.1714992
Sprenger-Charolles, L., & Colé, P. (2013) · Dunod eBooks · doi:10.3917/dunod.spren.2013.01.0277
Goswami, U. (2002) · Wiley eBooks · doi:10.1002/9780470996652.refs
- Authors
- Laxon, V., Masterson, J., & Coltheart, V.
- Affiliations
- City of London Polytechnic, U.K.
- Macquarie University (AU)
- Venue
- The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology Section A
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 1991-11
- Volume
- 43
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 793-824
- ISSN
- 0272-4987 (ISSN-L)
- 1464-0740
- OpenAlex
- W2014004463
- Cited by
- 35
- References
- 47
- Citations by year
- 2025: 1 · 2023: 1 · 2018: 1 · 2013: 1 · 2012: 1
- FWCI
- 1.12
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology Section A (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Reading and Literacy Development
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Language Development and Disorders
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Second Language Acquisition and Learning
- Keywords
- reading aloud, word recognition, pseudowords, children's reading, reading skills
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
