How number of errors and location of errors in spelling impede reading performance in undergraduate students

Abstract

The Lexical Quality Hypothesis (LQH) suggests that words are stored in memory as orthographic representations which consist of their meaning, spelling, and phonology, and errors in any of these areas lowers the quality of these representations, resulting in slower, more effortful retrieval from memory. Consequently, spelling accuracy has been shown to directly relate to reading speed, as spelling accuracy reflects lexical quality. Here, 75 undergraduate students spelled 25 words over three attempts to determine spelling accuracy, and then read these same words aloud, and their reading times were recorded. In support of the LQH, words with low and intermediate spelling accuracy were read significantly slower than words with high spelling accuracy. The location of first spelling errors and the number of spelling errors within misspelled words were also evaluated in relation to reading speed. Words with errors located in the first half were read significantly slower than words with errors located in the second half of the word. This supports scanning theory and the cohort model- which suggest that we store and retrieve words from left to right, and process them in real-time. Furthermore, the number of errors in the spelling of a word was positively correlated with reading speed. In conclusion, spelling accuracy as well as location and number of spelling errors within a word significantly hamper reading speed for these same words. These findings have significant implications for theory and educational settings.