Mediation in the Relation of Orthographic Processing on the Lexical and Sublexical Level with Reading and Spelling Skills. A Large Cross-Sectional Study in Elementary School Children in Germany

Figures & data

Figure 1. Illustration of the phoneme deletion task for the pseudoword knater without/n/.

Table 1. Descriptive statistics (M and SD) for grades 3 and 4 and the total sample.

	3rd grade (N = 1,242)	4^th grade (N = 1,394)	Total (N = 2,636)
Age in months	110.6 (4.3)	121.9 (4.5)	116.6 (7.2)
Reading fluency^a	93.4 (16.2)	104.0 (15.2)	99.0 (16.5)
Spelling^b	53.7 (10.2)	52.4 (9.9)	53.0 (10.0)
IQ^c	102.0 (14.0)	101.7 (13.9)	101.8 (14.0)
Phonological awareness^a (max 21)	15.6 (3.9)	16.4 (3.7)	16.0 (3.8)
WOK^a (max 60)	53.3 (5.6)	55.5 (4.2)	54.5 (5.0)
Words (max 30)	27.9 (2.2)	28.5 (1.6)	28.2 (1.9)
Pseudohomophones (max 30)	25.4 (4.1)	27.0 (3.2)	26.3 (3.7)
GOK^a (max 60)	46.4 (7.5)	48.0 (7.1)	47.2 (7.3)
Legal pseudowords (max 30)	23.5 (5.7)	24.4 (5.7)	24.0 (5.7)
Illegal pseudowords (max 30)	22.9 (4.1)	23.6 (3.8)	23.3 (3.9)

Note. ^aRaw score, ^bt-score, ^cIQ-score, WOK = word-specific orthographic knowledge.

GOK = general orthographic knowledge.

Table 2. Correlation coefficients between study variables with confidence intervals.

	1	2	3	4	5	6	6a		6b	7	7a
1. Age in months
2. Reading fluency	.26***
	[.22, .29]
3. Spelling	−.09***	.42***
	[−.13, −.06]	[.38, .45]
4. IQ	−.03	.14***	.29***
	[−.07, .00]	[.11, .18]	[.25, .32]
5. Phonological awareness	.05*	.29***	.43***	.24***
	[.01, .08]	[.26, .33]	[.39, .46]	[.21, .28]
6. WOK	.17***	.43***	.55***	.17***	.35***
	[.13, .20]	[.40, .46]	[.52, .57]	[.14, .21]	[.31, .38]
6a. Words	.11***	.29***	.36***	.12***	.25***	.77***
	[.07, .14]	[.26, .33]	[.32, .39]	[.08, .16]	[.21, .28]	[.76, .79]
6b. Pseudohomophones	.17***	.43***	.55***	.17***	.34***	.95***	.52***
	[.13, .21]	[.40, .46]	[.52, .58]	[.13, .21]	[.30, .37]	[.94, .95]	[.50, .55]
7. GOK	.08***	.09***	.14***	.19***	.19***	.17***	.14***		.15***
	[.05, .12]	[.05, .13]	[.10, .17]	[.16, .23]	[.15, .23]	[.13, .20]	[.11, .18]		[.11, .18]
7a. Legal pseudowords	.06**	.06**	.09***	.17***	.16***	.10***	.10***		.08***	.91***
	[.03, .10]	[.03, .10]	[.05, .13]	[.13, .21]	[.12, .20]	[.06, .14]	[.06, .14]		[.04, .12]	[.91, .92]
7b. Illegal pseudowords	.08***	.09***	.16***	.15***	.17***	.21***	.16***		.20***	.74***	.40***
	[.04, .12]	[.05, .13]	[.12, .20]	[.12, .19]	[.13, .21]	[.17, .24]	[.12, .19]		[.16, .23]	[.72, .76]	[.37, .43]

Note. Values in square brackets indicate the 95% confidence interval for each correlation, WOK = word-specific orthographic knowledge.

GOK = general orthographic knowledge.

*p < .05, **p < .01, ***p < .001.

Table 3. Differences between correlation coefficients between GOK and WOK with reading and spelling skills.

Correlation 1	Correlation 2	Difference between correlations
WOK ~ reading, r = .43***	GOK ~ reading, r = .09***	*
WOK (words) ~ reading, r = .29***	WOK (PsH) ~ reading, r = .43***	*
GOK (legal PsW) ~ reading, r = .06**	GOK (illegal PsW) ~ reading, r = .09***
WOK ~ spelling, r = .55***	GOK ~ spelling, r = .14***	*
WOK (words) ~ spelling, r = .36***	WOK (PsH) ~ spelling, r = .55***	*
GOK (legal PsW) ~ spelling, r = .09***	GOK (illegal PsW) ~ spelling, r = .16***	*

Note. WOK = word-specific orthographic knowledge, GOK = general orthographic knowledge, PsH = pseudohomophones, PsW = pseudowords.

*p < .05, **p < .01, ***p < .001.

Figure 2. Mediation effect of pseudohomophones (illegal word-specific orthographic knowledge) in the relationship between illegal pseudowords (illegal general orthographic knowledge) and reading or spelling.

Data availability statement

The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.