Abstract/Summary

Spanish script is considered as one of the shallowest because it is always possible to read out a string that conveys orthographic rules. This is also the general case for spelling but this time with a few exceptions like those in the title of this paper. To achieve proper spelling of these exceptions it is necessary to access specific orthographic knowledge. The availability of this kind of knowledge was tested Spanish and Uruguayan university students in two experiments. Material included words with ambiguous graphemes (i.e., “g” -/ g/ or /X/ in depending on the context) and control words with unambiguous graphemes (i.e., “j” -/ /X/ in any case). We found that words with ambiguous graphemes are performed worse as compared with unambiguous graphemes. Results are framed into the self-teaching hypothesis for literacy acquisition (Share, 1995) and some suggestions are drawn about the role of phonology in the process of storing orthographical information.