Word recognition cues for beginning and skilled readers

Three experiments are reported in which subjects chose from an array the response alternative that most resembled a nonsense stimulus trigram or quingram. Subjects could respond on the basis of individual letter positions or overall word shape. However, word shape was not manipulated independently of the individual letters that comprise the word as has been the case in previous studies. Kindergarten children and first graders who were poor readers showed a more varied pattern of responses than first graders who were good readers. With simple stimuli (trigrams), beginning and skilled readers chose alternatives on the basis of overall shape and the initial letter. With more complex stimuli (quingrams), the skilled readers continued choosing on the basis of word shape and initial letters, but beginning readers only chose on the basis of the first letter.