144 THE UNIVERSITY OF OKLAIHOMA 



Gale, M. C, and H., 19Q0. The Vocabularies of Three Child- 

 ren of One Family to Two and a Half Years of Age. Psych. 

 Studies, No. 1, 70-117. 



Hall, Mrs. W. S., 1897. First Five Hundred Days of a Child's 

 Life. Child Study Mo. II, 586-608. 



Langenbeck, Mildred, 1"915. A Study of a Five-Year-Old Child 

 Fed. Sem. XXII, 65-88. 



Oatman-Blachly, Miriam E., 1922. Further Notes on Eighteen- 

 months Vocrabularies. Proc. Okla. Acad. Sci., II, 106-108. 



Shim. Miliiccnt, 1901. Vocabularies. Child Study Mo. VI, 

 398-401. 



XXXII. AN EXPERIMENT IN AUTOMATIC SPELLING 



Herbert Fatterscn 



Oklchcna Agricultural and Mechanical College. 



On October 5, 1922, an experiment v>as made in tiie Stillwater 

 Public Schools, Stillwater, Oklahoma, to determine the relative 

 accuracy of automatic spelling and rational spelling. 



The experiment was conducted by advanced students in the 

 School of Education of Oklahoma A. and M. college, the work be- 

 ing done in connection with a course in Educational Measurements. 

 A total of 286 children in grades 4, 5, and 6, were given two types 

 of spelling exercises, the one exercise being in rational or deliberate 

 spelling and the other exercise being in automatic or subconscious 

 spelling. 



In order to make the experiment as scientific as possible, it 

 was attempted to keep constant all factors entering into the situa- 

 tion, with the single exception of the variable being measured, 

 namely, the method of spelling. The same person gave both exer- 

 cises. The same fifty words were used in both exercises. The 

 exercises were given at approximately the same time, one foUowing 

 the other almost immediately, a brief rest period of five minutes 

 intervening. In order to cancel the influence of fatigue, and that 

 of increasing familiarity with the situation, the exercise in automatic 

 spelling preceded that in rational spelling in five of the rooms 

 where the experiment was being conducted and in the other five 

 rooms the exercise in i"ational spelling preceded that in automatic 

 spelling. While the same fifty words were spelled in the second 

 exercise as in the first, no opportunity was a'.lowed for learning 

 to spell words during the five minute intermission between the two 

 exercises. 



Not only were the exercises given with the greatest of care, 



