SUBLEXICAL ORTHOGRAPHIC-PHONOLOGICAL RELATIONS EARLY IN THE ACQUISITION OF READING - THE KNOWLEDGE SOURCES ACCOUNT

Tests are made of an aspect of the ''knowledge sources'' theoretical a ccount of acquisition of reading in which, contrary to the development al bypass hypothesis, it is postulated that sublexical relations betwe en orthographic and phonological components are formed very early in l earning by spontaneous induction from stored print word experience. Ex periments 1 and 2, conducted with 5- and 6-year-old children, indicate d as predicted that positional frequency of orthographic components in experienced print words influenced reading responses to unfamiliar ps eudoword items. In Experiment 3 positional frequency of an orthographi c component was manipulated in a training-transfer paradigm. Transfer to pseudoword reading was as predicted. The results could not be given alternative explanations by the developmental bypass hypothesis nor b y accounts which predict exclusive use of onset and rime units at this early reading level. (C) 1996 Academic Press, Inc.