title: Default spacing is the optimal spacing for word reading.
abstract: Increased interletter spacing is thought to reduce crowding effects and to enhance fluent reading. Several studies have shown beneficial effects of increased interletter spacing on reading speed and accuracy, especially in poor readers. Therefore, increased interletter spacing appears to be a relatively easy way to enhance reading performance. However, in adult readers reading speed was shown to be impeded with increased interletter spacing. Thus, findings on interletter spacing are still inconclusive. In the current study we examined the effect of a range of interletter spacings (-0.5, default, 0.5, 1, 1.5, 2) on naming fluency of monosyllabic and bisyllabic words in beginning (Grade 2) and more advanced (Grade 4) readers. Additionally we tested the effects of spacing in a subsample of poor readers. In contrast to previous findings, neither beginning nor advanced readers benefited from an increase in interletter spacing. However, they did show reduced reading fluency when letter spacing was smaller than the default spacing, which may be indicative of a crowding effect. Poor readers showed a similar pattern. We conclude that an increase in interletter spacing has no effect on word naming fluency.
authors.affiliation: a Research Institute of Child Development and Education , University of Amsterdam , Amsterdam , The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Madelon
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: van den Boer
authors.forename: Britt E
authors.initials: BE
authors.lastname: Hakvoort
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010700:Phonetics; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D011932:Reading; D012660:Semantics; D013028:Space Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D014825:Vocabulary
keywords: Interletter spacing; Reading fluency