Is Phonological Short-term Memory Related to Orthographic Learning?

This thesis examined orthographic learning in university students and asked: (a) To what extent do university students demonstrate orthographic learning of novel words encountered through text? (b) What are the sources of individual differences in university student's orthographic learning? The participants had an average accuracy of 63% and 74% for the orthographic form on day one of testing and three days later, respectively. Logistic regression revealed that students who were better spellers had higher accuracy on the orthographic learning task and suggested that phonological STM might also be related to delayed retention of orthographic forms. Taken together, these results illustrate that university students learn the orthographic form of words encountered through texts. These results also help clarify some of the skills that university students might draw on to support their orthographic learning through text, namely existing orthographic knowledge and skill with remembering the phonological form of newly heard words.