Individual Differences in Young and Older Adults' Spelling: Do Good Spellers Age Better than Poor Spellers?

Authors: Margolin, Sara J.; Abrams, Lise

Source: Aging, Neuropsychology, and Cognition (Neuropsychology, Development and Cogniti, Volume 14, Number 5, September 2007 , pp. 529-544(16)

Publisher: Psychology Press, part of the Taylor & Francis Group

Buy & download fulltext article:

Price: $50.43 plus tax (Refund Policy)

Abstract:

Young and older adults' ability to retrieve the spellings of high- and low-frequency words was assessed via tests of spelling recognition and production. One of the spelling production tests required participants to write down the correct spellings of auditorily presented words, and accuracy was used to categorize participants in both age groups as good or poor spellers. The results showed that individual spelling ability and word frequency contributed to age differences. Older adults who were poor spellers were less accurate in recognizing and producing correct spelling than young adults who were poor spellers. In contrast, no age differences occurred for good spellers. Furthermore, low-frequency words were especially difficult for young adults and poor spellers, relative to older adults and good spellers. These results indicate that aging alone is not detrimental to the processes underlying recognition or production of spelling but instead compounds existing problems caused by poor spelling.

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13825580600826462

Affiliations: 1: Department of Psychology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA

Publication date: 2007-09-01