B. Rapp et A. Caramazza, FROM GRAPHEMES TO ABSTRACT LETTER SHAPES - LEVELS OF REPRESENTATION IN WRITTEN SPELLING, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance, 23(4), 1997, pp. 1130-1152
The letter substitution errors of 2 dysgraphic subjects who, despite r
elatively intact oral spelling, made well-formed letter substitution e
rrors in written spelling, were studied. Many of these errors bear a g
eneral physical similarity to the intended target. Analyses revealed t
hat this similarity apparently was based on the features of the compon
ent strokes of letters rather than on visuospatial characteristics. A
comparison of these subjects' letter substitution errors with those of
2 other individuals with brain damage, whose damage was at a differen
t level of processing, revealed that the latter subjects' errors are n
ot explicable in terms of stroke-feature similarity. Strong support wa
s found for the computation of multiple representational types in the
course of written spelling. This system includes a relatively abstract
, effector-independent representational level that specifies the featu
res of the component strokes of letters.