A task in which a patient is provided with written words which correspond to a series of objects or pictures. The aim of the task is to make the patient read them.
In this chapter I will focus on this second, interpretative aim of cognitive neuropsychology and so, before my descriptive account of reading and spelling disorders, I will need to discuss briefly the general theoretical framework within which one may attempt to understand normal visual word recognition and production. I shall first consider reading. I shall discuss the construction of a model of the oral reading of single words (and nonwords such as MANT) and show how predictions concerning acquired disorders of reading may be derived from it. These hypothetical disorders will be used to structure a discussion and evaluation of different varieties of acquired dyslexia.