Two studies examined the speed with which good spellers and poor spellers spell easy and difficult words. At both the elementary school (Grades 3 and 4) and undergraduate levels, good spellers spelled words more quickly than poor spellers. This difference appeared even for very easy words that all subjects could spell. Implications for the importance of automaticity in spelling competence are discussed.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AndersonJ. R. (1982) Acquisition of cognitive skillPsychological Review, 89, 369–406.
BirnbaumJ. C. (1982) The reading and composing behaviors of selected fourth- and seventh-grade studentsResearch in the Teaching of English, 16, 241–260.
4.
GagnéR. M. (1983) Some issues in the psychology of mathematics instructionJournal of Research in Mathematics Education, 14, 7–18.
5.
LaBergeB.SamuelsS. J. (1974) Toward a theory of automatic information processingCognitive Psychology, 6, 293–323.
6.
LarsenS. C.HammillD. D. (1986) Test of Written SpellingAustin, TX: Pro-ed.
7.
PerfettiC. A.HogaboamT. (1975) The relationship between single word coding and reading comprehension skillJournal of Educational Psychology67. 461–469.
8.
PerfettiC. A.LesgoldA. M. (1979) Coding and comprehension in skilled reading and implications for reading instruction In ResnickL. B.WeaverP. (Eds.), Theory and practice of early readingVol. 1. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
9.
PiankoS. (1979) A description of the composing processes of college freshmen writersResearch in the Teaching of English, 13, 5–22.
10.
SchneiderW.ShiffrinR. M. (1977) Controlled and automatic human information processing: I. Detection, search, and attentionPsychological Review, 84, 1–66.
11.
ShiffrinR. M.SchneiderW. (1977) Controlled and automatic human information processing: II. Perceptual learning, automatic attending, and a general theoryPsychological Review, 84, 127–190.
12.
StazykE. H.AshcraftM. H.HamannM. S. (1982) A network approach to mental multiplicationJournal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 8, 320–335.
