Phonological text alexia: Poor pseudoword reading plus difficulty reading functors and affixes in text

On single word reading tasks, two patients with impaired pseudoword reading (phonological alexia) read most words correctly and did not have particular difficulty reading functors compared with nouns and adjectives. However, their reading of text was markedly impaired, and errors occurred predominantly on functors and affixed words. The results of studies involving word span, pseudoword matching, and the technique of Rapid Serial Visual Presentation (RSVP) suggest that these patients' selective problems reading functors in text, and their difficulty reading pseudowords, are the result of an inability to hold multiple phonological codes in memory. This may be the result of insufficient activation of phonological representations, excessive retroactive and proactive phonological interference, or both.