Part of
Developmental Perspectives in Written Language and Literacy: In honor of Ludo VerhoevenEdited by Eliane Segers and Paul van den Broek
[Not in series 206] 2017
► pp. 51–67
Edited by Eliane Segers and Paul van den Broek
[Not in series 206] 2017
► pp. 51–67
Lexical quality revisited
Charles Perfetti | Learning Research and Development Center,
University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh PA, USA
I examine the central ideas of the Lexical Quality Hypothesis (LQH), reviewing the early studies that motivated them, and discussing more recent research that further supports and refines them. This research shows the specific importance of the reader’s knowledge of word meanings in comprehension, the effects of spelling knowledge on word reading, and the fine-grain consequences for text reading when lexical quality (LQ) has been experimentally manipulated during word learning. Studies of word-to-text integration provide a paradigm case for observing the reader’s use of word meaning knowledge during on-line comprehension. As a theoretical framework, the LQH has proved valuable for framing theoretical and practical questions about word knowledge and its role in reading.
Keywords: Lexical Quality, word identity, orthographic knowledge, word meaning, phonology, spelling, vocabulary, word-to-text integration, working memory
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 1.1The central ideas of Lexical Quality (LQ)
- 1.2A paradigm example of lexical quality
- 2.Lexical Quality as a theoretical framework
- 3.Some empirical implications of LQ
- 3.1Word meaning
- 3.2Form knowledge: Linguistic and literate forms
- 3.3Learning new words: Forms and meanings
- 3.4Manipulating Lexical Quality
- 3.5The word in text comprehension
- 4.Final reflections
-
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