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- Title
The Effects of Automatic Spelling Correction Software on Understanding and Comprehension in Compensated Dyslexia: Improved Recall Following Dictation.
- Authors
Hiscox, Lucy; Leonavičiūtė, Erika; Humby, Trevor
- Abstract
Dyslexia is associated with difficulties in language-specific skills such as spelling, writing and reading; the difficulty in acquiring literacy skills is not a result of low intelligence or the absence of learning opportunity, but these issues will persist throughout life and could affect long-term education. Writing is a complex process involving many different functions, integrated by the working memory system; people with dyslexia have a working memory deficit, which means that concentration on writing quality may be detrimental to understanding. We confirm impaired working memory in a sample of university students with (compensated) dyslexia, and using a within-subject design with three test conditions, we show that these participants demonstrated better understanding of a piece of text if they had used automatic spelling correction software during a dictation/transcription task. We hypothesize that the use of the autocorrecting software reduced demand on working memory, by allowing word writing to be more automatic, thus enabling better processing and understanding of the content of the transcriptions and improved recall. Long-term and regular use of autocorrecting assistive software should be beneficial for people with and without dyslexia and may improve confidence, written work, academic achievement and self-esteem, which are all affected in dyslexia. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Key Messages Working memory is a finite temporal storage of information, which integrates different ongoing behaviours and functions., In addition to the problems with language-specific skills shown by people with dyslexia, reduced working memory capacity is also found., If someone with dyslexia is concentrating on writing, and making sure that their spelling/grammar is accurate, they might not fully appreciate the content of the information they are writing., Our results show that using autocorrecting assistive software during transcription increases the understanding of the content of the written information., We propose that using autocorrecting software during lectures/class will aid understanding of the presented material and may improve academic achievement., Our study investigated university students, that is, compensated dyslexia, but these findings may be extrapolated to pre-university students.
- Subjects
DYSLEXIA; SPELL checkers (Computer programs); SHORT-term memory; PEOPLE with dyslexia; SPELLING ability; READING comprehension; COPYING; AUTHORSHIP
- Publication
Dyslexia (10769242), 2014, Vol 20, Issue 3, p208
- ISSN
1076-9242
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1002/dys.1480