01.12.2026 Benjamin Gagl

Visual word recognition is essential for efficient information processing in everyday reading. The talk will present our recent work on how we achieve efficient visual word recognition at the visual and orthographic processing levels. We describe the underlying neurocognitive processes using transparent computational models that allow (i) a detailed understanding of how we implement visual word recognition, (ii) neurocognitive phenotyping to describe individual differences at the neurocognitive level, and (iii) to motivate novel training procedures with the potential to increase reading skill in groups of slow readers. We conceptualized the model in a predictive coding framework that explicitly describes efficient representations, combined with evidence accumulation and categorization algorithms. Evaluation studies presented in the talk rely on brain activation measurements and behavioral data from typical readers of multiple languages, language learners, models, baboons, and pigeons.