The orthographic choice (OC) task—requiring individuals to choose the correct spelling between a word and a pseudohomophone foil (e.g., goat vs. gote)—has been used as an outcome measure of orthographic learning and as a predictor of individual differences in word reading development. Some consider the OC task a measure of orthographic knowledge (e.g., Conrad, Harris, & Williams (Reading and Writing, 26(8), 1223–1239, 2013)), whereas others have suggested that the task measures a reader’s familiarity with the word’s orthographic representation and thus measures word reading skill (e.g., Castles & Nation, 2006). We examined this assertion by testing OC task performance of individuals ages 8 to 18 (J = 296) and their ability to read the OC target words (I = 80) in isolation using crossed random effects item-response models. Results reveal that response on the OC task is not fully determined by the ability of an individual to read the target word in isolation. Specifically, the probability of choosing the correct orthographic form when the word was pronounced incorrectly was .79; whereas it was .90 when the word was pronounced correctly. Measures of receptive spelling and phonemic awareness (person-characteristics) and word frequency and orthographic neighborhood size (item-characteristics) accounted for significant variance in orthographic choice after controlling for target item reading and other reading-related abilities. We interpret the results to suggest that the OC task taps both item-specific orthographic knowledge and more general orthographic knowledge.

拼字法选择（OC）任务——要求个体在单词和伪同音字之间选择正确的拼写（例如， goat vs. gote ）——已被用作拼字法学习的结果测量和单词个体差异的预测因子阅读发展。一些人认为 OC 任务是对拼写知识的衡量（例如，Conrad、Harris 和 Williams（阅读与写作，26(8), 1223–1239, 2013）），而其他人则认为该任务衡量读者对拼字法知识的熟悉程度。单词的拼写表示，从而衡量单词阅读技能（例如，Castles & Nation，2006）。我们通过测试 8 至 18 岁个体 ( J = 296) 的 OC 任务表现以及他们使用交叉随机效应项目响应模型单独阅读 OC 目标单词 ( I = 80) 的能力来检验这一断言。结果表明，对 OC 任务的反应并不完全取决于个人单独阅读目标单词的能力。具体来说，当单词发音错误时选择正确拼写形式的概率为 0.79；而当这个词发音正确时，它是 0.90。在控制目标项目阅读和其他阅读相关能力后，接受性拼写和音素意识（人特征）以及词频和拼写邻域大小（项目特征）的测量解释了拼写选择的显着差异。我们对结果的解释表明 OC 任务利用了特定于项目的拼写知识和更一般的拼写知识。