Lexical dynamics for low-frequency complex words

2007 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 419-463 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. H. Baayen ◽  
Lee H. Wurm ◽  
Joanna Aycock
Keyword(s):  
Word Recognition ◽  
Theoretical Analysis ◽  
Lexical Decision ◽  
Target Word ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
Mixed Effects ◽  
Frequency Range ◽  
Frequency Effects ◽  
Complex Words ◽  
Root Frequency

In this study we examine the word recognition process for low-frequency morphologically complex words. One goal of the study was to replicate and expand upon findings suggesting facilitative effects of morphological relatives of a target word. A second goal was to demonstrate the need for a reinterpretation of root and surface frequency effects, which traditionally have been taken as indicators of parsing-based and memory-driven processing, respectively. In a first study, we used the same stimuli across auditory and visual lexical decision and naming. Mixed-effects statistical modeling revealed that surface frequency was a robust predictor of RTs even in the very low end of the distribution, but root frequency was not. Also, the nature of the similarity between a target and its lexical competitors is crucial. Measures gauging the influence of morphological relatives of the target were facilitative, while measures gauging the influence of words related only in form were inhibitory. A second study analyzing data from the English Lexicon Project, for a large sample of words from across the full frequency range, supports these conclusions. An information-theoretical analysis of root and surface frequency explains why surface frequency must be the most important predictor, with only a marginal role for root frequency.

scholarly journals Priming effects in the recognition of simple and complex words and pseudowords

2018 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 198-222
Author(s):  
Miguel Lázaro ◽  
Víctor Illera ◽  
Javier Sainz
Keyword(s):  
Word Recognition ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
Morphological Processing ◽  
Orthographic Processing ◽  
Frequency Effect ◽  
Experimental Conditions ◽  
Priming Effects ◽  
The Third ◽  
Complex Words ◽  
Intense Debate

AbstractWhether morphological processing of complex words occurs beyond orthographic processing is a matter of intense debate. In this study, morphological processing is examined by presenting complex words (brujería -> brujo –witchcraft -> witch), as well as simple (brujaña->brujo) and complex pseudowords (brujanza ->brujo), as primes in three masked lexical decision tasks. In the first experiment, the three experimental conditions facilitated word recognition in comparison to the control condition, but no differences emerged between them. Given the importance of the surface frequency effect observed, a second experiment was conducted. The results fully replicate those observed in the first one, but this time with low frequency targets. In the third experiment, vowels were removed from the stems of primes to reduce the orthographic overlap between primes and targets and, therefore, the influence of the embedded stem effect. The results show facilitative effects only for complex words. However, paired comparisons show no differences between experimental conditions. The overall results show the central role played by the processing of stems in visual word recognition and are explained in terms of current models of morphological processing.

How word frequency affects morphological processing in monolinguals and bilinguals

2003 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 213-225 ◽  
Author(s):  
MINNA LEHTONEN ◽  
MATTI LAINE
Keyword(s):  
High Frequency ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
Morphological Processing ◽  
Decision Task ◽  
Frequency Range ◽  
Medium Frequency ◽  
Word Forms ◽  
Full Form ◽  
Differential Pattern ◽  
Complex Words

The present study investigated processing of morphologically complex words in three different frequency ranges in monolingual Finnish speakers and Finnish-Swedish bilinguals. By employing a visual lexical decision task, we found a differential pattern of results in monolinguals vs. bilinguals. Monolingual Finns seemed to process low frequency and medium frequency inflected Finnish nouns mostly by morpheme-based recognition but high frequency inflected nouns through full-form representations. In contrast, bilinguals demonstrated a processing delay for all inflections throughout the whole frequency range, suggesting decomposition for all inflected targets. This may reflect different amounts of exposure to the word forms in the two groups. Inflected word forms that are encountered very frequently will acquire full-form representations, which saves processing time. However, with the lower rates of exposure, which characterize bilingual individuals, full-form representations do not start to develop.

Morpheme frequency effects in Dutch complex word reading: A developmental perspective

2011 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 483-498 ◽  
Author(s):  
LUDO VERHOEVEN ◽  
ROB SCHREUDER
Keyword(s):  
Lexical Decision ◽  
Lexical Decision Task ◽  
Word Reading ◽  
Word Identification ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
Decision Task ◽  
Word Form ◽  
Word Forms ◽  
Grade 3 ◽  
Complex Words

ABSTRACTThis study examined to what extent advanced and beginning readers, including dyslexic readers of Dutch, make use of morphological access units in the reading of polymorphemic words. Therefore, experiments were carried out in which the role of singular root form frequency in reading plural word forms was investigated in a lexical decision task with both adults and children. Twenty-three adult readers, 37 8-year-old children from Grade 3, 43 11-year-old children from Grade 6, and 33 11-year-old dyslexic readers were presented with a lexical decision task in which we contrasted plural word forms with a high versus low frequency of the singular root form. For the adults, it was found that the accuracy and speed of lexical decision is determined by the surface frequency of the plural word form. The frequency of the constituent root form played a role as well, but in the low-frequency plural words only. Furthermore, a strong developmental effect regarding the accuracy and speed of reading plural word forms was found. An effect of plural word form frequency on word identification was evidenced in all groups. The singular root form frequency also had an impact of the reading of the plural word forms. In the normal reading and dyslexic children, plurals with a high-frequency singular root form were read more accurately and faster than plurals with a low singular root frequency. It can be concluded that constituent morphemes have an impact on the reading of polymorphemic words. The results can be explained in the light of a word experience model leaving room for morphological constituency to play a role in the lexical access of complex words as a function of reading skill and experience and word and morpheme frequency.

scholarly journals Effects of Age, Word Frequency, and Noise on the Time Course of Spoken Word Recognition

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristin J. Van Engen ◽  
Avanti Dey ◽  
Nichole Runge ◽  
Brent Spehar ◽  
Mitchell S. Sommers ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Young Adults ◽  
Word Recognition ◽  
Target Word ◽  
Word Frequency ◽  
Time Course ◽  
Spoken Word Recognition ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
Spoken Word ◽  
Lexical Activation

This study assessed the effects of age, word frequency, and background noise on the time course of lexical activation during spoken word recognition. Participants (41 young adults and 39 older adults) performed a visual world word recognition task while we monitored their gaze position. On each trial, four phonologically unrelated pictures appeared on the screen. A target word was presented auditorily following a carrier phrase (“Click on ________”), at which point participants were instructed to use the mouse to click on the picture that corresponded to the target word. High- and low-frequency words were presented in quiet to half of the participants. The other half heard the words in a low level of noise in which the words were still readily identifiable. Results showed that, even in the absence of phonological competitors in the visual array, high-frequency words were fixated more quickly than low-frequency words by both listener groups. Young adults were generally faster to fixate on targets compared to older adults, but the pattern of interactions among noise, word frequency, and listener age showed that older adults’ lexical activation largely matches that of young adults in a modest amount of noise.

Lexical access in mild cognitive impairment

2015 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 271-285 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vanessa Taler ◽  
Shanna Kousaie ◽  
Christine Sheppard
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Impairment ◽  
Mild Cognitive Impairment ◽  
Lexical Decision ◽  
Lexical Processing ◽  
Contextual Information ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
Unrelated Word ◽  
Decision Task ◽  
Frequency Effects ◽  
Lexical Activation

We examined the use of sentence context in lexical processing in aging and mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Younger and older adults and participants with MCI completed a lexical decision task in which target words were primed by sentences biasing a related or unrelated word (e.g., prime: “The baby put the spoon in his ______”, biased word: “mouth”, related target: “KISS”, unrelated target: “LEASH”). Biased items were of high or low frequency. All participants responded more quickly when the biased word was of high than low frequency, regardless of whether the target and biased word were related. Frequency effects were stronger in related than unrelated stimuli, and MCI participants – but not controls – responded more slowly when the target was related to a low-frequency word than when it was unrelated. We hypothesize that this effect results from slowed lexical activation in MCI: low frequency expected words are not completely activated when the target word is presented, leading to increased competition between the expected and target items, and resultant slowing in lexical decision on the target. These results indicate that MCI participants can use contextual information to make predictions about upcoming lexical items, and that information about lexical associations remains available in MCI.

scholarly journals Do ‘blacheap’ and ‘subcheap’ both prime ‘cheap’? An investigation of morphemic status and position in early visual word processing

2018 ◽  
Vol 71 (8) ◽  
pp. 1645-1654 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lauren Heathcote ◽  
Kate Nation ◽  
Anne Castles ◽  
Elisabeth Beyersmann
Keyword(s):  
Word Recognition ◽  
Lexical Decision ◽  
Visual Word Recognition ◽  
Word Processing ◽  
Visual Word ◽  
Early Stages ◽  
Complex Words ◽  
Morphological Relationship ◽  
Prime Target ◽  
Real Complex

Much research suggests that words comprising more than one morpheme are decomposed into morphemes in the early stages of visual word recognition. In the present masked primed lexical decision study, we investigated whether or not decomposition occurs for both prefixed and suffixed nonwords and for nonwords which comprise a stem and a non-morphemic ending. Prime–target relatedness was manipulated in three ways: (1) primes shared a semantically transparent morphological relationship with the target (e.g., subcheap-CHEAP, cheapize-CHEAP); (2) primes comprised targets and non-affixal letter strings (e.g., blacheap-CHEAP, cheapstry-CHEAP); and (3) primes were real, complex words unrelated to the target (e.g., miscall-CHEAP, idealism-CHEAP). Both affixed and non-affixed nonwords significantly facilitated the recognition of their stem targets, suggesting that embedded stems are activated independently of whether they are accompanied by a real affix or a non-affix. There was no difference in priming between stems being embedded in initial and final string positions, indicating that embedded stem activation is position-independent. Finally, more priming was observed in the semantically interpretable affixed condition than in the non-affixed condition, which points to a semantic licensing mechanism during complex novel word processing.

scholarly journals Effects of age, word frequency, and noise on the time course of spoken word recognition

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristin J. Van Engen ◽  
Avanti Dey ◽  
Nichole Runge ◽  
Brent Spehar ◽  
Mitchell S. Sommers ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Young Adults ◽  
Word Recognition ◽  
Target Word ◽  
Time Course ◽  
Spoken Word Recognition ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
Recognition Task ◽  
Spoken Word ◽  
Lexical Frequency

This study assessed the effects of age, lexical frequency, and noise on the time course of lexical activation during spoken word recognition. Participants (41 young adults and 39 older adults) performed a visual world word recognition task while we monitored their gaze position. On each trial, four phonologically-unrelated pictures appeared on the screen. A target word was presented following a carrier phrase (“Click on the ________”), at which point participants were instructed to use the mouse to click on the picture that corresponded to the target word. High- and low-frequency words were presented in quiet and in noise at a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of +3 dB. Results show that, even in the absence of phonological competitors in the visual array, high-frequency words were fixated more quickly than low-frequency words by both listener groups. Young adults were generally faster to fixate on targets compared to older adults, but the pattern of interactions among noise, lexical frequency, and listener age show that the behavior of young adults in a small amount of noise largely matches older adult behavior.

Phonology and Orthography in Visual Word Recognition: Evidence from Masked Non-Word Priming

1992 ◽  
Vol 45 (3) ◽  
pp. 353-372 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ludovic Ferrand ◽  
Jonathan Grainger
Keyword(s):  
Word Recognition ◽  
Lexical Decision ◽  
Target Word ◽  
Word Frequency ◽  
Visual Word Recognition ◽  
Time Course ◽  
Target Recognition ◽  
The Other ◽  
Prime Duration ◽  
Word Priming

Three lexical decision experiments in French investigated the effects of briefly presented forward-masked non-word primes on latencies to phonologically and/or orthographically related targets. At 64-msec prime presentation durations, primes that are pseudohomophones of the target produced facilitatory effects compared to orthographic controls, but these orthographically similar non-word primes did not facilitate target recognition compared to unrelated controls. These results were obtained independently of target word frequency and independently of the presence or absence of pseudohomophone targets in the experimental lists. With a 32-msec prime duration, on the other hand, pseudohomophone and orthographic primes had similar effects on target recognition, both producing facilitation relative to unrelated controls. The results are discussed in terms of the time course of phonological and orthographic code activation in the processing of pronounceable strings of letters.

THE STORAGE AND PROCESSING OF MORPHOLOGICALLY COMPLEX WORDS IN L2 SPANISH

2015 ◽  
Vol 39 (4) ◽  
pp. 735-767 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca Foote
Keyword(s):  
Word Recognition ◽  
Lexical Decision ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Response Times ◽  
Advanced Learners ◽  
Lexical Decision Tasks ◽  
Research Questions ◽  
L2 Spanish ◽  
Complex Words ◽  
Contrast Studies

Research with native speakers indicates that, during word recognition, regularly inflected words undergo parsing that segments them into stems and affixes. In contrast, studies with learners suggest that this parsing may not take place in L2. This study’s research questions are: Do L2 Spanish learners store and process regularly inflected, morphologically complex words like native speakers? Does this depend on proficiency? Does type of inflection (verbal or adjectival) play a role? Native speakers, advanced learners, and intermediate learners of Spanish completed two lexical-decision tasks. Response times were measured to target words (verbs or adjectives) preceded by masked primes that were either identical to the targets, morphologically, orthographically, or semantically related, or unrelated. All groups responded more quickly to targets when they were preceded by identical and morphologically related primes than when they were preceded by unrelated primes, with no differences due to either proficiency or inflection type.

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