Is Set for Variability Performance Dependent on Prior Successful Decoding Attempts for Certain Items? An Item-Level Examination

Purpose: The relationship between the set for variability (SfV) task and various isolated word reading measures in developing readers is high (ranging from .60 to .80 across studies). Elbro et al. (2012) offered that SfV skill serves as a second step in the decoding process allowing the decoded form of the letter string to be matched with the stored phonological form. An alternative explanation is that during item-based orthographic learning children produce and perhaps store a decoded form of the word that can be accessed during the SfV task, facilitating performance. In the current study we explore the possibility that this second hypothesis can help explain SfV performance for certain items. Method: In a sample of 499 children (grades 2–5), item-level analyses were used to explore the possibility that performance on certain SfV items might be dependent on prior successful decoding attempts (SDA) while controlling for important child attributes (e.g., decoding skill) and word characteristics (e.g., spelling-to-pronunciation transparency). Results: Results suggest that some (but not all) words on the SfV task may be dependent on prior SDA. Words that are dependent on prior SDA tend to have fewer phonemes and syllables, but no other word features explored significantly differ between SDA dependent and independent words. Conclusion: We propose that to correctly complete the SfV task, certain items may require the word to have been previously decoded successfully. These findings have implications for how the relationship between SfV and word reading is interpreted and tested moving forward.