Abstract
Recent research has revealed that the substitution of handwriting practice for typing may hinder the initial steps of reading development. The current experiment investigated the impact of graphomotor action and output variability in letter and word learning using a variety of tasks. A total of 50 prereaders learned nine letters and 16 pseudowords made up of these letters across four learning conditions: copying the letters/words by hand, tracing the letters/words, typing the letters/words on a computer with several fonts, and typing with a single font. Posttest tasks included naming, writing, and visual identification of the trained letters and words. Results showed that children in the handwriting groups achieved higher accuracy across all posttest tasks compared with those in the typing groups.
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ERCT Criteria Breakdown
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Level 1 Criteria
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C
Class-level RCT
- Randomization was at the individual child level, but the intervention was delivered one-to-one, fitting the personal teaching exception.
- The training and testing were conducted individually in a classroom within the same educational center.
Relevant Quotes:
1) "The children were randomly assigned to one of four training subgroups designed to examine two main comparisons: (a) handwriting versus typing and (b) high versus low variability." (p. 5)
2) "The training and testing were conducted individually in a classroom within the same educational center." (p. 7)
Detailed Analysis:
Criterion C requires randomization at the class level (or stronger), unless the intervention is personal teaching where student-level randomization is acceptable. Here, children were randomized into four training subgroups. Although this is not class-level randomization, the paper states that training and testing were conducted individually (one-to-one delivery). This matches the ERCT personal teaching exception because the intervention is delivered individually rather than through intact classes.
Final sentence explaining if criterion C is met because student-level randomization is acceptable when the intervention is delivered one-to-one.
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E
Exam-based Assessment
- Outcomes were measured with study-specific tasks on novel letters and pseudowords, not standardized exams.
- The stimuli consisted of nine unfamiliar letters drawn from the Armenian and Georgian alphabets, which were novel for Spanish readers;
Relevant Quotes:
1) "The stimuli consisted of nine unfamiliar letters drawn from the Armenian and Georgian alphabets, which were novel for Spanish readers;" (p. 6)
2) "Posttest tasks included naming, writing, and visual identification of the trained letters and words." (p. 1)
Detailed Analysis:
Criterion E requires standardized, exam-based assessments. This study teaches unfamiliar letters and pseudowords, then assesses learning using study-specific posttest tasks (naming, writing, identification). These are not standardized exams.
Final sentence explaining if criterion E is not met because outcomes are measured using custom experimental tasks rather than standardized exams.
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T
Term Duration
- Outcomes were assessed within three consecutive days, far shorter than one academic term.
- Each participant attended three 45-min sessions held on 3 consecutive days.
Relevant Quotes:
1) "Each participant attended three 45-min sessions held on 3 consecutive days." (p. 7)
Detailed Analysis:
Criterion T requires outcome measurement at least one academic term after the intervention begins. The intervention and posttests occurred across three consecutive days, so the follow-up is immediate and far shorter than a term.
Final sentence explaining if criterion T is not met because the study duration and measurement window are only three days.
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D
Documented Control Group
- The paper documents participant characteristics and reports no baseline differences across groups in control measures.
- The descriptive data for the control tasks in the sample are presented in Table 1. No significant differences between groups were found in any of the control measures.
Relevant Quotes:
1) "A total of 50 children in the last year of kindergarten (mean age = 5.4 years; 22 girls) participated in this experiment with the informed consent of their parents." (p. 5)
2) "The descriptive data for the control tasks in the sample are presented in Table 1. No significant differences between groups were found in any of the control measures." (p. 11)
Detailed Analysis:
Criterion D requires documented baseline characteristics and comparability across randomized groups. The paper reports the sample size and demographics and explicitly states that no significant differences between groups were found in the control measures presented in Table 1, supporting baseline equivalence.
Final sentence explaining if criterion D is met because baseline characteristics and between-group comparability are documented.
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Level 2 Criteria
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S
School-level RCT
- The study sampled from a single school and randomized children, not schools.
- The sample was selected from a school in an urban area of the Basque Country in Spain.
Relevant Quotes:
1) "The sample was selected from a school in an urban area of the Basque Country in Spain." (p. 6)
2) "The children were randomly assigned to one of four training subgroups" (p. 5)
Detailed Analysis:
Criterion S requires school-level randomization. This study sampled from a single school and randomized children into conditions, so schools were not randomized.
Final sentence explaining if criterion S is not met because randomization was within one school rather than across schools.
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I
Independent Conduct
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Y
Year Duration
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B
Balanced Control Group
- The paper states that exposure and duration were made comparable across conditions, balancing time-on-task and practice quantity.
- was maximized by ensuring that all of them involved the same exposure to the stimuli for a similar duration.
Relevant Quotes:
1) "was maximized by ensuring that all of them involved the same exposure to the stimuli for a similar duration." (p. 7)
2) "To ensure equivalence across the different learning conditions, all participants produced the same number of copies of each letter and pronounced its sound only once per letter presentation." (p. 8)
Detailed Analysis:
Criterion B asks whether time and resources are balanced across conditions unless extra resources are the explicit treatment variable. The paper explicitly states that exposure and duration were made comparable across learning conditions and that participants produced the same number of copies per letter. This indicates time-on-task and practice quantity were controlled across groups.
Final sentence explaining if criterion B is met because the study explicitly matched exposure and practice quantity across all groups.
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Level 3 Criteria
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R
Reproduced
- No independent peer-reviewed replication of this specific experiment was found.
Relevant Quotes:
None.
Detailed Analysis:
Criterion R requires an independent replication by other authors. A web search did not identify a peer-reviewed study that explicitly reproduces this specific experiment, and the paper does not report being replicated.
Final sentence explaining if criterion R is not met because no independent peer-reviewed replication was found.
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A
All-subject Exams
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G
Graduation Tracking
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P
Pre-Registered
- The paper provides an OSF link for materials and data but does not state or verify preregistration with a pre-data-collection date.
- All stimuli, data, analysis scripts, and outputs are available on the Open Science Framework (OSF) (https://osf.io/m2jh8/?view_only= 954f06d3352a48d5ab41514e75aecac2 ).
Relevant Quotes:
1) "All stimuli, data, analysis scripts, and outputs are available on the Open Science Framework (OSF) (https://osf.io/m2jh8/?view_only=954f06d3352a48d5ab41514e75aecac2 )." (p. 5)
Detailed Analysis:
Criterion P requires a preregistered protocol with a registration date before data collection begins. The paper provides an OSF link for materials and data but does not state that the study was preregistered, and it does not provide a preregistration identifier or date. The OSF page does not appear to be a preregistration record based on the citation in the paper.
Final sentence explaining if criterion P is not met because preregistration is not explicitly stated and a preregistration record and date are not provided.
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