title: Learning to spell in a language with transparent orthography: Distributional properties of orthography and whole-word lexical processing.
abstract: We examined how whole-word lexical information and knowledge of distributional properties of orthography interact in children's spelling. High- versus low-frequency words, which included inconsistently spelled segments occurring more or less frequently in the orthography, were used in two experiments: (a) word spelling; (b) lexical priming of pseudoword spelling. Participants were 1st-, 2nd-, and 4th-grade Italian children. Word spelling showed sensitivity to the distributional properties of orthography in all children: accuracy in spelling uncommon transcription segments emerged progressively as a function of word frequency and schooling. Lexical priming effects emerged as a function of age. When related primes contained an uncommon segment, 2nd- and 4th-graders preferred uncommon segments than common ones in spelling target pseudowords, thus inverting the response trend found in the control condition. A smaller but significant effect was present in 1st- graders, who, unlike 2nd- and 4th-graders, still preferred common segments, only slightly increasing the use of uncommon ones. A larger priming effect emerged for high-frequency primes than low-frequency ones. Results indicate that children learning to spell in a transparent orthography are sensitive to the distributional properties of the orthography. However, whole-word lexical representations are also used, with larger effects in more skilled pupils.
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of History, Society and Human Studies, Laboratory of Applied Psychology and Intervention, University of Salento, Lecce, Italy.
authors.forename: Paola
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9870-6009
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Angelelli
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of History, Society and Human Studies, Laboratory of Applied Psychology and Intervention, University of Salento, Lecce, Italy.|2 IRCCS Foundation Santa Lucia, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Chiara Valeria
authors.initials: CV
authors.lastname: Marinelli
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of History, Society and Human Studies, Laboratory of Applied Psychology and Intervention, University of Salento, Lecce, Italy.
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Putzolu
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of History, Society and Human Studies, Laboratory of Applied Psychology and Intervention, University of Salento, Lecce, Italy.
authors.forename: Alessandra
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Notarnicola
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of History, Society and Human Studies, Laboratory of Applied Psychology and Intervention, University of Salento, Lecce, Italy.
authors.forename: Marika
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Iaia
authors.affiliation: 3 ISTC-CNR, Rome, Italy.|4 Department of Life Sciences, University of Trieste, Italy.
authors.forename: Cristina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Burani
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007804:Language Development; D008297:Male; D010700:Phonetics; D011932:Reading; D012660:Semantics; D014706:Verbal Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D014825:Vocabulary
keywords: Distributional properties of orthography; Lexical priming; Lexical spelling; Spelling acquisition; Transparent orthography