Learning to spell in a language with transparent orthography: Distributional properties of orthography and whole-word lexical processing

We examined how whole-word lexical information and knowledge of distributional properties of orthography interact in children's spelling. High- versus low-frequency words, which included inconsistently spelled segments occurring more or less frequently in the orthography, were used in two experiments: (a) word spelling; (b) lexical priming of pseudoword spelling. Participants were 1st-, 2nd-, and 4th-grade Italian children. Word spelling showed sensitivity to the distributional properties of orthography in all children: accuracy in spelling uncommon transcription segments emerged progressively as a function of word frequency and schooling. Lexical priming effects emerged as a function of age. When related primes contained an uncommon segment, 2nd- and 4th-graders preferred uncommon segments than common ones in spelling target pseudowords, thus inverting the response trend found in the control condition. A smaller but significant effect was present in 1st- graders, who, unlike 2nd- and 4th-graders, still preferred common segments, only slightly increasing the use of uncommon ones. A larger priming effect emerged for high-frequency primes than low-frequency ones. Results indicate that children learning to spell in a transparent orthography are sensitive to the distributional properties of the orthography. However, whole-word lexical representations are also used, with larger effects in more skilled pupils.

Publication type: 
Articolo
Author or Creator: 
Angelelli P.
Marinelli C.V.
Putzolu A.
Notarnicola A.
Iaia M.
Burani C.
Publisher: 
Psychology Press,, [Hove] , Regno Unito
Source: 
The quarterly journal of experimental psychology (2006. Print) 7 (2018): 704–716. doi:10.1080/17470218.2016.1275715
info:cnr-pdr/source/autori:Angelelli P.; Marinelli C.V.; Putzolu A.; Notarnicola A.; Iaia M.; Burani C./titolo:Learning to spell in a language with transparent orthography: Distributional properties of orthography and whole-word lexical processing/doi:10.
Date: 
2018
Resource Identifier: 
http://www.cnr.it/prodotto/i/366717
https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17470218.2016.1275715
info:doi:10.1080/17470218.2016.1275715
http://www.scopus.com/record/display.url?eid=2-s2.0-85011277245&origin=inward
Language: 
Eng