Phonological and semantic information in adults’ orthographic learning

A training paradigm was used to assess the early stages of the acquisition of novel letter strings in adults. Provision of either phonological or semantic information during training improved spelling recognition (Experiment 1). Manipulation of the processing required during training (phonological, semantic, or both) produced no consistent effects on spelling when both phonology and meaning were provided (Experiment 2). An advantage of phonological over orthographic processing on spelling recognition and cued recall was found when meaning was provided during training but phonology was not (Experiment 3). The experiments support the role of phonological information in early learning of orthography, but additional research is required to clarify when and how semantic information supports the formation of new orthographic representations.