Proofreading familiar text: Constraints on visual processing

Recent emphasis on the interactive nature of processing during reading has focused attention on how higher level syntactic-semantic processes might constrain or alter the processing of letters and words during reading. The present studies addressed this question by examining the effect of prior knowledge about a passage on the subsequent ability to see visual errors when rereading the same text. Experiment 1 demonstrated that prior knowledge of a passage leads to better proofreading of that passage. Experiment 2 showed that this facilitation is at the level of visual letter and word analyses, not through higher level constraints on rereading. The data are discussed in terms of skilled visual pattern analyses and in terms of the redistribution of processing resources.