Review of The Psychology of Reading and Spelling

Abstract

Reviews the book, The Psychology of Reading and Spelling, with special reference to disability by Arthur I. Gates. The present investigation was carried on at the Scarbrough School, Scarborough, New York. Dr. Gates had the good fortune to work with a group of pupils of normal or superior intelligsnce but who yet manifested the reading or spelling difficulties which form the subject of study. A number of group tests of general mental ability, achievement, responses to visual and auditory stimuli, and of sensory mechanisms and motor responses were given to 100 pupils in grades 3-8. Detailed individual tests of mental ability and specialized abilities were also given. In a short review it is impossible to make any adequate report of the study. In the first part of the volume it is shown that there is an ability common to reading, the recognition of correct spelling, proof reading, and the ability to detect differences between pairs of similar "words. It would seem that both for prediction and for diagnosis the value of any one of these tests is minimized by the fact that they are applicable only through the use of material which has already been learned; and that the worth of showing that there are psychological elements common to reading and proof reading, for example, is not great. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)