Resumen de Effects of selected levels of misspelling and mispronunciation on comprehension and retention

Robert J. Kibler, Larry L. Barker

• Previous research by the authors suggests that moderate degrees of mispronunciation in a message may not affect comprehension or retention. This study expands the previous research by investigating the relative effect of mode of presenting verbal errors on comprehension and retention. Misspellings were compared with mispronunciations to determine if one mode (i.e., written vs. oral) tended to affect comprehension and retention more than the other. Results indicated that, although subjects perceived three significantly different levels of mispronunciation and misspelling in messages, neither increasing the frequency of verbal errors in a message nor altering the mode of presenting a message significantly affected comprehension or retention.