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Abstract An important characteristic of the word superiority effect (WSE) observed in normal subjects is that it extends to words displayed in mixed case letters, e.g., fAdE is better identified than gAdE (McClelland, 1976). Because upper and lower case letters are treated as functionally equivalent within the orthographic system (e.g., "A"/"a" map onto abstract letter identities; Coltheart, 1981), it is often argued that orthographic codes mediate the WSE. In the present paper, we report an intact WSE in a letter-by-letter surface alexic (IH) when words and "word-like" pseudowords were displayed quickly and then masked. Consistent with the claim that orthographic codes mediated these effects, the WSE extended to words typed in mixed case letters, and IH failed to show a WSE for the same class of words for which he has impaired orthographic knowledge; namely, low frequency words. Based on these results, we argue that IH gains better access to orthographic knowledge than current theories of letter-by-letter reading would predict.
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