Changes in letter processing in beginning readers

Abstract Letter pairs were tachistoscopically presented to children from grades 1, 2 and 6 (85.6, 99.4, and 147.8 months of age, respectively). They were required to determine whether the letters had a same name by pressing one of two response keys as fast as possible. Also a letter detection task was presented where letter matching was either based on physical or name characteristics. The name match in both tasks was slower than the match of letters which shared the same visual form. The name-physical match differences changed significantly as a function of grade level. Shifts in latency differences over grades can be considered as a fundamental correlate of reading ability. Children increasingly employ strategies of processing based on nominal cues and become efficient in extracting the invariant features of letters amongst irrelevant variations such as type face.