Book excerpt: The chapters in this new book span the range of reading processes from early visual analysis to semantic influences on word identification, thus providing a state-of-the-art summary of current work and offering important contributions to prospective reading research. Basic Processes in Reading examines both future plans and past accomplishments in the world of word identification research. Three chapters provide a futuristic view taking a parallel distributed processing approach to semantic priming, phonology, and the identification of old words and the learning of new words. Reviews on eye movements in reading and semantic priming on word identification provide a retrospective summary of work on these issues as well as solid pointers for future investigations. Other chapters provide new demonstrations of the importance of phonological contributions to word identification, of interactive processes in the identification of handwritten words, and a re-evaluation of the processes involved in the neuropsychological syndrome described as "letter-by-letter" reading.