Toward a unified theory of reading

Despite nearly 40 years of scientific theorizing about reading, the field remains fragmented with little progress toward unification. In this article, we (a) emphasize the privileged position of unified theories in all science, (b) compare the growth of theory in cognitive science and reading, (c) identify the phenomenal domain of a unified scientific theory of cognition in reading, (d) propose five general principles for evaluating such theories, and (e) discuss selected influential theories and their potential for contributing to a unified theory of cognition in reading. Our purpose is to extol reading theory and encourage increased attention to developing powerful, unified theories.