Orthographic processing is an open problem. Decades of visual word recognition research have fueled the development of various theoretical frameworks. Although these frameworks have had good explanatory power, various recent results cannot be satisfactorily captured in any model. In order to account for old and new phenomena alike, here I present a new theory of how the brain computes letter positions. According to PONG (which describes the Positional Ordering of N-Grams), each hemisphere of the brain comprises a set of mono- and multigram detectors. The crux is that the detectors for a given N-gram are activated to different extents in their respective hemispheres, depending on where in the visual field the N-gram is located. This differential activity allows the brain to estimate the leftness or rightness of that N-gram, whereby word activation is a function of the N-gram's identity plus its laterality relative to that of other activated N-grams. Simulations with PONG suggest that the framework effectively accounts for classic phenomena, as well as newer phenomena and cross-linguistic differences that cannot be explained by other models. I also reflect on the neurophysiological plausibility of the model and avenues for future inquiry. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

中文翻译：

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PONG：通过双半球激活进行视觉单词识别的计算模型。


正交处理是一个悬而未决的问题。数十年的视觉文字识别研究推动了各种理论框架的发展。尽管这些框架具有良好的解释力，但任何模型都无法令人满意地捕获最近的各种结果。为了同样解释新旧现象，我在这里提出了一种关于大脑如何计算字母位置的新理论。根据 PONG（描述 N 元语法的位置排序），大脑的每个半球都包含一组单语法和多语法检测器。关键在于，给定 N 元语法的检测器在各自半球中的激活程度不同，具体取决于 N 元语法在视野中的位置。这种差异活动允许大脑估计该 N-gram 的左或右，由此单词激活是 N-gram 的身份加上其相对于其他激活的 N-gram 的侧向性的函数。 PONG 的模拟表明，该框架有效地解释了经典现象，以及其他模型无法解释的新现象和跨语言差异。我还反思了该模型的神经生理学合理性以及未来探究的途径。 （PsycInfo 数据库记录 (c) 2024 APA，保留所有权利）。