Familiar letter sequences in noncued portions of a tachistoscopic display were shown to reduce accuracy of partial report. Findings suggest that familiarity may automatically direct attentional resources to a particular spatial region. Such attentional capture may be disruptive if the material is presented at another location. (Author/RD)

The duration and timing of the context is which letters occur is shown to influence the perceptibility of the target in experiments demonstrating that early on enhanced word presentations and pronounceable-pseudoword contexts increase letter perceptibility. The perceptibility of letters in strings sharing several or few letters with words is…

Hypotheses about the processes involved in word recognition are reviewed and assessed through four experiments. Overall results were compatible with criterion bias models. A version of this model attributes the advantage of words (over pseudowords and nonwords) to interfacilitation among single letter and lexical units in memory. (Author/RD)

Twelve first-grade children were tested on word-reading and automaticity of letter and word processing. Word-reading speed increased steadily during the year. Apparently, their ability to process letters automatically was acquired prior to the ability to read words rapidly and accurately. (Author/CP)

Mnemonic value of spellings in a paired-associate sound learning task was examined in first and second graders. Learning was fastest when correct spellings were seen or imagined. The preferred interpretation was that spellings are effective because they provide readers with orthographic images for symbolizing and storing sounds in memory.…

Describes the structured internalization spelling method, which uses a series of small, graduated steps to teach students with learning disabilities to transcribe phonological sounds (phonemes) as alphabetic letters (graphemes) onto paper. The implementation of the program and the benefits of structured internalization are presented along with a…

Investigates three important issues in kanji learning strategies; namely, strategy use, effectiveness of strategy and orthographic background. A questionnaire on kanji learning strategy use and perceived effectiveness was administered to beginner level, undergraduate students of Japanese from alphabetic and character backgrounds in Australia.…

Discusses the "Russian Dynamic Hand," a working prototype for introducing the Russian writing and sound system that has been available to students at Louisiana State University since September 1988. The project's evolution is discussed from an initial graphics-centered IBM prototype to a Macintosh version enhanced by an audio component.…

Three studies examined preschoolers' and kindergartners' learning of correspondences between phonemes and graphemes. Findings suggest that children use their knowledge of letter names and their phonological segmentation skills rather than memorizing these links in a rote, paired-associate manner. (Contains 26 references.) (Author/LB)

Study examined whether phonemic sensitivity is limited to alphabetically literate individuals. Children not exposed to reading instruction were given pairs of phonological sensitivity tasks. Novice readers scored higher in phonological sensitivity than nonreaders of equivalent letter knowledge, when controlled for verbal ability; among nonreaders,…

Presents a descriptive bibliography of children's alphabet books under the categories of: Animals and Nature, Cultures and Holidays, and Notable Graphics. Suggests activities for primary and intermediate grades which use these materials. (AEF)

This study investigated the development of alphabet knowledge among 91 nonreading children followed from the beginning of kindergarten through the middle of first grade. Findings suggested that alphabet knowledge consists of both letter-name and letter-sound knowledge, which have different developmental patterns and which have unique importance…

Until American Calvinist missionaries created a Hawaiian alphabet and writing system after their arrival to the Hawaiian islands in 1819, all Kanaka Maoli literature was oral. By inventing a Hawaiian alphabet, the missionaries were able to teach Kanaka Maoli reading and writing; by the early 1830s the first missionary-controlled printing press was…

Developmental changes in children's verbal fluency were explored in this study. One hundred and forty children aged from 7 to 16 completed four verbal fluency tasks, each with a different the production criterion (letter, sound, semantic, and free). The age differences were analyzed both in terms of number of words produced, and clustering,…

Two experiments tested the common assumption that knowing the letter names helps children learn basic letter-sound (grapheme-phoneme) relation because most names contain the relevant sounds. In Experiment 1 (n=45), children in an experimental group learned English letter names for letter-like symbols. Some of these names contained the…