Reading is mostly just recognizing words (and word components) by sight.

· Bits and Bobs 3/17/26
  • Reading is mostly just recognizing words (and word components) by sight.
    • That's why it's so automatic once you have enough practice.
      • You can't not read words.
      • It just happens, automatically.
    • There's also an inductive procedure to bootstrap new words by sounding them out.
      • This process is error prone and mentally challenging.
      • It gets easier the more sounds you already know, because you can pattern match components.
      • We acquire spoken words orders of magnitude easier than than written words.
      • As you know more words, you have more context clues… you recognize the other words, so can additionally think, "what word that has vaguely that sound fits in this sentence."
    • This process is robust enough to just require some priming and patience.