An individual differences analysis of the self-teaching hypothesis

• Published in: Journal of experimental child psychology 2011-02, Vol.108 (2), p.402-410
• Main Authors: Conners, Frances A., Loveall, Susan J., Moore, Marie S., Hume, Laura E., Maddox, Christopher D.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Association Learning; Attention; Biological and medical sciences; Child; Child development; Children; Children & youth; Decoding (Reading); Developmental psychology; Female; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Generalization (Psychology); Grade 2; Grade 3; Humans; Hypotheses; Identification; Independent Study; Individual Differences; Individuality; Language; Male; Orthographic learning; Orthographic Symbols; Orthography; Phonetics; Phonological Awareness; Phonological recoding; Phonology; Practice (Psychology); Production and perception of written language; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Reading; Self-teaching hypothesis; Semantics; Verbal Behavior; Verbal Learning; Word identification; Writing
• ISSN: 0022-0965; 1096-0457
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2010.09.009

The self-teaching hypothesis suggests that children learn orthographic structure of words through the experience of phonologically recoding them. The current study is an individual differences analysis of the self-teaching hypothesis. A total of 40 children in Grades 2 and 3 (7–9 years of age) completed tests of phonological recoding, word identification, and orthographic knowledge. The relation of phonological recoding and word identification was significantly mediated by orthographic knowledge. Furthermore, two aspects of orthographic knowledge (perhaps word-specific and general orthographic knowledge) mediated different variance shared between phonological recoding and word identification. Results support an individual differences version of the self-teaching hypothesis and emphasize the importance of phonological recoding in the primary curriculum.