Abstract
The general aim of this study is to contribute to a better understanding of the cognitive processes that underpin skilled adult spelling. More specifically, it investigates the influence of lexical neighbors on pseudo-word spelling with the goal of providing a more detailed account of the interaction between lexical and sublexical sources of knowledge in spelling. In prior research examining this topic, adult participants typically heard lists composed of both words and pseudo-words and had to make a lexical decision to each stimulus before writing the pseudo-words. However, these priming paradigms are susceptible to strategic influence and may therefore not give a clear picture of the processes normally engaged in spelling unfamiliar words. In our two Experiments involving 71 French-speaking literate adults, only pseudo-words were presented which participants were simply requested to write to dictation using the first spelling that came to mind. Unbeknownst to participants, pseudo-words varied according to whether they did or did not have a phonological word neighbor. Results revealed that low-probability phoneme/grapheme mappings (e.g., /o/ -> aud in French) were used significantly more often in spelling pseudo-words with a close phonological lexical neighbor with that spelling (e.g., /krepo/ derived from “crapaud,” /krapo/) than in spelling pseudo-words with no close neighbors (e.g., /frøpo/). In addition, the strength of this lexical influence increased with the lexical frequency of the word neighbors as well as with their degree of phonetic overlap with the pseudo-word targets. These results indicate that information from lexical and sublexical processes is integrated in the course of spelling, and a specific theoretical account as to how such integration may occur is introduced.
Highlights
Spelling is generally assumed to involve two major processes, or “routes” (Figure 1)
GENERAL DISCUSSION The data reported in this paper are the first to demonstrate a clear lexical influence on pseudo-word spelling in unimpaired adults in a paradigm that minimizes the likelihood of an overt recruitment of lexical processes
Our findings offer direct evidence that strengthen earlier empirical reports of lexical priming effects on pseudo-word spelling, extend results obtained with children, and challenge the view that lexical and sublexical spelling processes are strictly independent
Summary
Spelling is generally assumed to involve two major processes, or “routes” (Figure 1). One can access the stored spellings of familiar words in an “orthographic lexicon,” following activation from the phonological lexicon and/or the semantic system. Spelling words through the sublexical process alone may lead to phonologically plausible errors such as “phone”-> FONE or “colonel” -> KERNEL in which low probability phoneme-grapheme mappings are replaced with higher probability mappings. Such errors are a characteristic feature of the spelling performance of brain damaged individuals with an impaired lexical process, as observed in “surface dysgraphia” (Tainturier and Rapp, 2001).
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