Predicability (ease of predication) as semantic substrate of imageability in reading and retrieval

Abstract

It was proposed by Jones (1985) that the apparent influence of a word's imageability upon the probability of the word being read correctly by a deep dyslexic person could be understood in terms of an underlying semantic variable, ease of predication (also termed predicability). In a recent critique, de Mornay Davies and Funnell (2000) claim to have identified a number of problems with the ease of predication proposal. It is shown here, however, that it is the critique itself which is fundamentally flawed. In contrast, the predicability approach continues to identify correctly the semantic substrate of apparent effects of imageability upon reading and memory retrieval. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science (USA). All rights reserved