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Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!ncis.tis.llnl.gov!helios.ee.lbl.gov!ucsd!cogsci!meadors
From: meadors@cogsci.ucsd.EDU (Tony Meadors)
Newsgroups: comp.cog-eng,sci.psychology
Subject: Spelling and IQ (was: Effects of poor writing?)
Message-ID: <750@cogsci.ucsd.EDU>
Date: 26 May 89 17:58:48 GMT
Reply-To: meadors@cogsci.UUCP (Tony Meadors)
Distribution: comp.cog-eng
Organization: U.C. San Diego, Institute for Cognitive Science
Lines: 58


 I proposed:
>> I would bet that given a "real" cross-section of individuals (think of
>> testing everyone that enters the DMV for example) you would find quite
>> a tidy correlation between performance on a spelling test and a standard 
>> IQ test: say, 0.3 to 0.4. Why this is, as well as what it means to
>> designers, educators, and we, the poor spellers, is an open question.

 J. Ellis wrote:
>You would lose -- As I posted a couple of weeks ago, research has 
>discovered that poor spelling is a form of dyslexia that is an
>inherited trait -- the problem is that some people have difficulty
>visualizing letter and numbers (e.g. phone numbers) in the correct sequences

 I presume what you mean is that "in addition to the many influences which
 affect one's development of language skills (and spelling in particular),
 dyslexia, a heritable condition, is sometimes responsible for 
 perceptual-cognitive difficulties which greatly degrade spelling ability."
 [and not that poor spelling always signals that dyslexia is about...] 

>This same research shows that there is no correlation between spelling
>and intelligence!
>J. Ellis

 I did miss that posting. Hmm, research on the heritability of dyslexia
 included a correlational study of spelling and intelligence in the
 general population? Naturally, the details concerning the subjects and 
 tests are essential before I could comment.

 So to be stubborn, I still stand by my prediction. Of course, we might
 both be right. Very simply, I may have a much wider sampling in mind
 than you: that's why I used the DMV example, to give an idea of the range
 of IQ's I was taking in: illiterate farmers, politicians, gang members,
 secretaries, mechanics, artists, gardeners. 
 But rather than just reassert this prediction let me comment on just
 "how I figure." I figure on two "conditions" underlying this correlation.

   First, a broad trend toward greater literacy with increasing IQ naturally 
 brings with it a greater command of the language. While errors on the
 words troublesome to all may differ little with IQ (we all have 
 similar confusability tendencies) the lower frequency words might be a 
 different story.
   Secondly, the lower end of the IQ spectrum is likely to contain more
 illiterates and extremely poor spellers than the upper end. Please
 note that I'm not making any causative, or moral claims here: in particular
 I'm not claiming that "intelligence" underlies spelling skill, the
 retention of spellings, etc.

 So while I still expect a CORRELATION between IQ scores and spelling,
 I am not proposing that spelling "reflects one's intelligence" or that
 spelling is a "feat of intellect."


happy memorial !

tonyM