View source for Bouma

{{Short description|Typography term}}
{{for|the surname|Bouma (surname)}}
In [[typography]], a '''bouma''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|b|oʊ|m|ə}} {{respell|BOH|mə}}) is the [[shape]] of a cluster of [[letter (alphabet)|letter]]s, often a whole [[word]]. It is a reduction of "Bouma-shape", which was probably first used in [[Paul Saenger]]'s 1997 book ''Space between Words: The Origins of Silent Reading'', although Saenger himself attributes it to Insup & Maurice Martin Taylor. Its origin is in reference to hypotheses by the prominent vision researcher [[Herman Bouma]], who studied the shapes and confusability of letters and letter strings.<ref>[[Herman Bouma|Bouma, H.]], (1971), "Visual Recognition of Isolated Lower-Case Letters",  ''Vision Research'', '''11''', 459-474.<br>- Bouma, H., (1973), "Visual Interference in the Parafoveal Recognition of Initial and Final Letters of Words", ''Vision Research'', '''13''', 762-782.</ref>

Some typographers believe that, when reading, people can recognize words by deciphering boumas, not just individual letters, or that the shape of the word is related to readability and/or legibility. The claim is that this is a natural strategy for increasing reading efficiency. However, considerable study and experimentation by [[cognitive psychology|cognitive psychologists]] led to their general acceptance of a different, and largely contradictory, theory by the end of the 1980s: [[parallel letterwise recognition]].<ref>Adams, M.J., (1979), "Models of word recognition", ''Cognitive Psychology'', '''11''', 133-176.<br>- McClelland, J.L. & Johnson, J.C. (1977), "The role of familiar units in perception of words and nonwords", ''Perception and Psychophysics'', '''22''', 249-261.<br>- Paap, K.R., Newsome, S.L., & Noel, R.W. (1984), "Word shape’s in poor shape for the race to the lexicon", ''Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance'', '''10''', 413-428.<br>- Rayner, K. (1975), "The perceptual span and peripheral cues in reading", ''Cognitive Psychology'', '''7''', 65-81.</ref> Since 2000, parallel letterwise recognition has been more evangelized to typographers by Microsoft's Dr Kevin Larson, via conference presentations and a widely read article.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.microsoft.com/typography/ctfonts/WordRecognition.aspx|title=The Science of Word Recognition|author=Kevin Larson|date=20 October 2017|publisher=Microsoft|accessdate=24 November 2019}}</ref> Nonetheless, ongoing research (starting from 2009) often supports the bouma model of reading.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://gumc.georgetown.edu/news/After-Learning-New-Words-Brain-Sees-Them-as-Pictures|title=After Learning New Words, Brain Sees Them As Pictures|author= Maximilian Riesenhuber|publisher=Georgetown University Medical Center|date=24 March 2015|accessdate=24 November 2019}}<br>- {{cite journal|url=http://www.jneurosci.org/content/jneuro/35/12/4965.full.pdf|title=Adding Words to the Brain's Visual Dictionary: Novel Word Learning Selectively Sharpens Orthographic Representations in the VWFA|author=Laurie S. Glezer, Judy Kim, Josh Rule, Xiong Jiang, and Maximilian Riesenhuber|journal=The Journal of Neuroscience|date=25 March 2015|volume=35|issue=12|pages=4965–4972|doi=10.1523/JNEUROSCI.4031-14.2015|pmid=25810526|pmc=4389595|accessdate=24 November 2019}}</ref>

== See also ==
* [[Visual thinking]]

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20051013055018/http://www.magtypo.cz/download/TYPO_2005_13.pdf Issue #13 of TYPO magazine devoted to readability]
* [http://obereed.net/lettersim/Bouma1971.html Data from an experiment by H. Bouma]
* [https://arxiv.org/pdf/1209.4554 Bouma2 - A Quasi-Stateless, Tunable Multiple String-Match Algorithm] 

[[Category:Typography]]
[[Category:Cognition]]