In their foundational work on reading psychology, Raynor and Pollatsek used experimental evidence to show that neither top-down, nor bottom-up theories in isolation can fully account for reading data. This continues to be the main issue in modern research: how to intersect bottom-up and top-down models. Though Raynor and Pollatsek, and Clarke (see Short Circuits), have used experimental research to show these two theories pointing to an intersection that is ‘reading’, how these models can work together is still unknown. They have, however, created a detailed model of sentence reading that takes into account the interactions of initial encoding, long term memory / knowledge, and the active processes of working memory and parsing.
In this model, the parser (the part of the brain that analyses sentences for structure) is seen as a purely syntactic device. It uses input from the lexicon (personal vocabulary of language and morphemes) to produce a structural representation for the sentence. The parser uses the principles of minimal attachment and late closure.
An example of minimal attachment is illustrated by Rayner and Pollatsek (1989) in the sentences, "The girl knew the answer by heart" and "The girl knew the answer was wrong". The minimal attachment principle leads to a grammatical structure in which "the answer" is regarded as the direct object of the verb "knew". This works for the first sentence, but not the second, illustrating the effect of late closure having a bearing on the grammatical structure.
They also assume that the nature of temporary storage in the working memory is phonological. Therefore, if comprehension fails, the inner speech module can replay the message. There is little mention of details about how meaning is represented.
Though there is a detailed mapping of cognitive processes during reading, Raynor and Pollatsek also found that good readers are able to recognise lexical forms at a processing speed faster than the time required to activate context effects and conscious predicting. Thus, their theories present a more integrated approach, involving both bottom-up and top-down processing, as “the interactive models, attempting to be more comprehensive, rigorous and coherent, give emphasis to the interrelations between the graphic display in the text, various levels of linguistic knowledge and processes, and various cognitive activities” (Weber, 1984).