Modelling assembled spelling: convergence of data from normal subjects and "surface" dysgraphia.

A model of assembled spelling proposed by Barry and Seymour (1988, Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology), based upon normal subject's spelling of nonwords, is presented. Predictions concerning surface dysgraphic spelling are derived from this model, and are compared against the performance of the patient recently reported by Baxter and Warrington (1987, Cortex). Although the model's expectations are broadly confirmed, Baxter and Warrington's data suggest that an adequate model of assembled spelling requires further specification, particularly in two areas: how sound-to-spelling correspondences are established, and how context-sensitivity constraints (or multiple unit correspondences) operate.