Abstract
Children of first, third, and fifth grade reading levels were presented pseudowords, either first- or fourth-order approximations to English with one item missing. Ss were to guess the name of the missing item. Results showed a clear developmental trend: first-graders show no difference in guessing accuracy between the different orders of approximation. Third and fifth graders show a difference in accuracy between the orders of approximation. An interaction of Order of Approximation by Left-Right Accuracy was found only for the third and fifth graders. The results were interpreted to provide support for the notion that Ss will use the sequential constraints of English orthography whenever they are evident, provided that they have had sufficient experience with English.
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Partial support for this research comes from a grant from the National Institute of Education (NE-G-00-3-0017). We thank Fred Rogers. Principal of the Lonnie B. Nelson School. Columbia. S.C. who allowed us the use of his facilities, and the teachers of the school, who were patient while we took students from their classes. Ralph N. Haber sponsors this paper and takes full editorial responsibility for it.
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Lefton, L.A., Spragins, A.B. & Byrnes, J. English orthography: Relation to reading experience. Bull. Psychon. Soc. 2, 281–282 (1973). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03329272
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03329272