Abstract
The aim of this study is to examine a role of kusho behavior in remembering English spellings. Japanese and Chinese subjects were given the task of verifying English spellings. In experiment 1, kusho behavior was observed among the majority of Japanese subjects. Furthermore, two types of kusho behavior were observed. One was the type gazing at their fingers during the task while the other was a non-gazing type. In Experiment 2, two groups were arranged according to their frequency of kusho behavior, in order to compare frequency of kusho behavior and its type. The esult showed that medium-high frequency group showed kusho behavior as frequently as Experiment 1, even though the task words were all phonetically discriminable. The medium-high frequency group showed no gazing and low frequency group made the only gazing type. Experiment 3 was done to clarify whether Chinese speakers, who use Chinese characters and obey a rich phonological system, would show kusho behavior in remembering English spellings. Kusho behavior was also observed among Chinese subjects, though their kusho behavior was all gazing type.
