“…Indeed, studies show that adults and children often remember the initial letters of words better than the subsequent letters (e.g., Jensen, 1962;Kooi, Schutz, & Baker, 1965;Treiman, Berch, & Weatherston, 1993). There is also evidence that letters at the edges of words, especially the initial letter, play a special role in reading for both children and adults (e.g., Ehri & Saltmarsh, 1995;Rayner, White, Johnson, & Liversedge, 2006;White, Johnson, Liversedge, & Rayner, 2008). For example, Rayner et al (2006) showed that, compared to a control condition in which words were spelled correctly, reading speed decreased more when a letter at the beginning of a word was switched with its neighbor (e.g., oculd for could) than when a letter in the middle or at the end of a word was switched (e.g., cuold or coudl for could).…”