Orthographic texture effects during spelling are due to variations in representational strength

In this study, we investigated the source of the orthographic texture effect during familiar word spelling. Orthographic texture refers to the differential strength that individual letters in a word may be activated for output. Prior work indicates that strongly activated letters are more accurately produced than weakly activated ones (Jones, Folk, & Rapp, 2009, All Letters are not Equal: Sub-Graphemic Texture in Orthographic Working Memory. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 35, 1389-1402. DOI: 10.1037/a0017042). According to an orthographic lexical strength account, differences in activation of individual letters within words are the result of learning; more easily learned letters are more strongly represented and, thus, activated for output. However, an online-competition hypothesis indicates that the contribution of sublexical assembly processes during familiar word spelling may account for the effect. Current results support the orthographic lexical strength account; the lexical orthographic representations used for spelling are themselves textured.