Effects of reading proficiency on embedded stem priming in primary school children

Abstract

Prior evidence from masked morphological priming has revealed conflicting findings regarding the acquisition of morpho-orthographic segmentation mechanisms in developing readers. Here, we examined changes in masked morphological priming across grade within a large sample of French primary school children (n = 191, Grades 2-5) and how these effects are modulated by individual differences in reading proficiency, spelling proficiency, and morphological awareness. Target words were preceded by either (a) a suffixed word prime (e.g., tristesse-TRISTE), (b) a suffixed nonword prime (e.g., tristerie-TRISTE), (c) a non-suffixed nonword prime (e.g., tristald-TRISTE), or (d) an unrelated prime (e.g., direction-TRISTE) using very short prime durations (50 ms). Moreover, a frequency manipulation was included for suffixes and non-suffixes. The results revealed robust suffixed word priming across all children independent of grade and proficiency. On the other hand, priming in the suffixed and non-suffixed nonword conditions was modulated by reading proficiency, with high-proficiency children showing facilitation and low-proficiency children showing inhibition. The effects of suffix and non-suffix frequency were modulated by grade, with decreasing effects as grade increased. None of the observed priming effects were modulated by grade, spelling proficiency, or morphological awareness. The results suggest that reading proficiency is an important predictor for embedded stem activation mechanisms in primary school children, which we discuss in the context of recent theories of morphological processing.

Masked Morphological Priming in German-Speaking Adults and Children: Evidence from Response Time Distributions

“…Importantly, in contrast to adults, the difference between the suffixed and nonsuffixed prime conditions did not reach significance in developing readers, which suggests that there was no evidence for morpho-orthographic decomposition by means of affix-stripping in these individuals. Presumably, elementary school children instead activate embedded stems through partially shared orthography, as Beyersmann et al ( 2015b ) reported for proficient child readers. This is consistent with the pattern observed in the quantiles, suggesting that there was a shift rather than a skew in the RT distribution of the suffixed word, suffixed nonword, and non-suffixed nonword conditions.…”

“…Embedded stems are mapped onto orthographic whole-word representations, even if the overlap is only partial (see also Ziegler et al, 2014 ). Embedded stems might thus function as lexical representations that can be activated automatically during the early stages of visual word recognition (Beyersmann et al, 2015b ). In a transparent language like German, where an alphabetic reading strategy is usually accurate and efficient, elementary school children could still be prone to read sequentially from left to right.…”

“…The authors conclude that priming only arises for semantically related prime-target pairs and morpho-orthographic decomposition is not yet automatized in children. A recent study by Beyersmann et al ( 2015b ) and the first using suffixed and nonsuffixed nonword primes with children suggests that priming is modulated by reading proficiency: morpho-semantic priming from suffixed words was evident in children across all grades in elementary school, but more proficient child readers additionally showed effects of embedded stem priming from suffixed and nonsuffixed nonwords. As in Beyersmann et al's ( 2012 ) earlier findings, there was no evidence for morpho-orthographic processing in primary school children.…”

“…However, if German children do not automatically segment all affixed stimuli, priming should only occur from truly suffixed word primes, replicating the Beyersmann et al ( 2012 ) pattern. Importantly, considering that we use nonword primes, which increases the chances for embedded stem priming effects to arise because no conflicting inhibition can occur as in turnip-turn pairs, child readers might also show priming in the nonsuffixed nonword condition (Beyersmann et al, 2015b ), if they are able to extract stems.…”

Nurturing a lexical legacy: reading experience is critical for the development of word reading skill

“…15 It is likely that children also develop increased sensitivity to morphological complexities and regularities, allowing them to capitalise on the relationships between a word's morphological structure and its spelling. [18][19][20] Clearly, something develops as children move from novice to expert, and while this has its roots in phonological decoding, much more research on the development of orthographic expertise is needed. 10 READING EXPERIENCE AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF LEXICAL QUALITY Perfetti's lexical quality hypothesis 6,21 defines lexical quality as the extent to which a word's mental representation specifies its spelling, sound and meaning.…”