The Content of Orthographic Images of Second and Third Graders

Abstract

From a study by Ehri in 1980 it may be concluded that silent letters are more often represented in the orthographic images of beginning readers than pronounced letters. However, as she noted, the experimental results on which this conclusion is based may have been confounded by the fact that silent and pronounced letters did not occur in the same position in the test words. The present study is an extended replication of Ehri's investigation, but here positions of the different types of letters were controlled. The results differed from those of Ehri and support the conclusion that silent and pronounced letters are equally represented in the orthographic images of beginning readers.