Pathway selection's utility for control of word recognition.

Regularity effects signify assembled phonology: the nonlexical pathway in word recognition. Assembled phonology may be strategically controlled. When task conditions do not favor its use, such as when a lexical decision task includes pseudohomophone (durt) foils, an alternative pathway is selected. Consequently, regularity effects will be reduced or absent. This prediction was tested in 3 lexical decision experiments using several definitions of word regularity. Word regularity was crossed in factorial designs with nonword lexicality, the degree to which nonword foils mimic the properties of actual words. Regularity effects to words were large and most reliable in pseudohomophone conditions, opposite to the tested prediction. Instead, the observed pattern corroborated a resonance account with parametric control.