bouma shape
n.— «Some have used the term bouma as a synonym for word shape, though I was unfamiliar with the term. The term bouma appears in Paul Saenger’s 1997 book Space Between Words: The Origins of Silent Reading. There I learned to my chagrin that we recognize words from their word shape and that “Modern psychologists call this image the ‘Bouma shape.’”» —“The Science of Word Recognition” by Kevin Larson Microsoft July, 2004. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
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