Spelling accuracy as a function of repression-sensitization

Whether an individual's spelling accuracy is related to personality apart from general intellectual capacity was investigated by giving a spelling test to 80 undergraduates, 40 repressers and 40 sensitizers identified on the basis of scores received on Byrne's Repression-Sensitization Scale. The sensitizers were clearly superior to the repressers in their spelling accuracy, and this difference was not an artefact of differences in intellectual aptitude as determined by SAT verbal and quantitative scores. In fact, among the male subjects the repressers, with lower spelling scores, had higher quantitative SAT scores than sensitizers.