A total of 339 pupils from 99 first-grade classes were tested over a 2-year period to determine whether they could pronounce words presented singly, out of context, equally well when they were printed with all capital letters, first letter only capitalized, or all lower case orthography. The Isolated Word Recognition test of the Standard Reading Inventory was used. The scores were significantly in favor of higher achievement on words presented in all lower case orthography. The findings supported the contention that configuration may be important in recognizing words. This support was inferential only in that the data did not refute the idea of configuration; a refutation would have been made if performance in both forms had been equal. The findings gave a mixed interpretation for the usefulness of modified or augmented alphabetic systems, since the moving from lower case orthography to capital orthography might be viewed as a problem of transfer. There was an average achievement difference of about 25 percent, favoring better performance with lower case orthography. References and tables are included. (Author/MD)