Does Word Morphology Affect Spelling to Dictation Across Adulthood?

Purpose: Previous studies have shown morphological facilitation of spelling accuracy, as well as evidence for longer intervals at morpheme boundary in adult spelling. The current study examined the effect of morphological structure on retrieval of orthographic representations of spelling across adulthood. Method: Forty younger (22–30 year-old, 50% women), 40 middle age (44–55 year-old, 60% women), and 40 older (70–80 year-old, 55% women) Hebrew-speaking adults spelled 60 morphologically simple and 60 morphologically complex words from dictation. Coding distinguished between homophonic errors that involved a substitution of a target letter with phonologically plausible (but incorrect) letter, and all other errors, which we termed non-homophonic errors. Results: Younger adults made more homophonic errors and fewer non-homophonic errors than did older adults, regardless of morphological condition. The younger and middle-age adults showed no morphological effect, whereas older adults made fewer non-homophonic errors on morphologically simple than on morphologically complex words. Conclusion: Morphological complexity did not facilitate spelling across adulthood, and instead it increased peripheral, non-homophonic errors in older individuals, likely because online activation of morphological constituents during spelling limited processing capacity, especially in old age. Importantly, aging did not lead to difficulties in orthographic retrieval.