How to see a reading unit

When briefly presented with a string of colored letters, subjects sometimes report seeing letters and colors in incorrect combinations. We asked whether these illusory conjunctions of letter shape and identity can illuminate the units of analysis that are used by the visual system in word perception. Specifically, are illusory conjunctions more likely between letters within the same syllable of a word than between letters within different syllables? The results of five experiments show that when syllables are defined by orthographic constraints or by morphological boundaries, syllables are functional units in the visual analysis of words and word-like stimuli. Syllables defined by purely phonological criteria do not affect feature integration. We propose that illusory conjunctions can reveal the units of analysis in word perception.