Effects of syllable-frequency in lexical decision and naming: An eye-movement study

Hutzler, Florian; Conrad, Markus; Jacobs, Arthur

doi:10.1016/j.bandl.2004.06.001

Cited by 38 publications

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“…The results of both experiments showed worse performance for words with high-frequency first syllables. In a lexical decision task performed by Germanspeakers, Hutzler and colleagues also observed an inhibitory effect of syllable frequency on eye-movement measures (number of fixations, duration of the first fixation and gaze duration; Hutzler, Conrad, & Jacobs, 2005). Finally, electrophysiological evidence of the inhibitory effect has been also obtained with German-speakers (Hutzler et al, 2004).…”

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Syllable frequency in lexical decision and naming of English words

Macizo

Petten

2006

Read Writ

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The importance of phonological syllables in recognition and pronunciation of visual words has been demonstrated in languages with a high degree of spelling-sound correspondence. In Spanish, multisyllabic words with frequent first syllables are named more quickly than those with less frequent first syllables, but receive slower lexical decisions. The latter effect is attributed to lexical competition from other words beginning with the same syllable. We examined syllable frequency effects on naming and lexical decision for 3,029 visually-presented words in English, a language with a high degree of irregularity in spelling/sound relationships, and in which phonological syllables are less clearly marked in printed words. The results showed facilitative effects of syllable frequency in both tasks, and these were stronger when syllables were defined orthographically than phonologically. The results suggest that activation of lexical candidates based on a syllabic code does not occur rapidly enough to interfere with lexical decision in English.Keywords: Syllable; Syllable frequency; Orthography; Phonology; Neighborhood; Similarity; Orthographic syllable 2 The nature of the sublexical representations that allow people to recognize and name words continue to be debated (e.g., Schiller, 2000), including the possibility that these may differ across languages. Although early studies suggested that phonological syllables were relevant to visual recognition of English words (Spoehr & Smith, 1973, 1975, further research rejected this idea and instead argued for the orthographic and morphological nature of visual lexical access (e.g., Taft, 1979; see Taft, 1991 for review). However, several studies in Spanish -a language with a shallow orthography --have shown that syllables can function as sublexical units in both visual word perception and word production (e.g., Carreiras, Álvarez, & de Vega, 1993;Ferrand, Segui, & Grainger, 1996). Recent studies in French and German support this view Mathey & Zagar, 2002). The basic methodology of the European studies has been to demonstrate influences of syllable frequency independent of whole-word frequency. In contrast, the reliability of syllable-frequency effects has received less attention in languages with a large degree of irregularity in the correspondence between spelling and pronunciation, such as English. Before proceeding to the current analyses of syllable frequency in English, we review results from other languages, and then extant data from English. Syllable frequency in word recognition tasks without production demandsThe impact of syllable frequency in Spanish visual word recognition is inhibitory, 1 consisting of slower reaction times and/or higher error rates for words with high-frequency syllables as compared to those with low-frequency syllables, independent of whole-word frequency. One of the earliest reports, using a task of self-paced reading, determined that it was positional frequency of the first syllable that slowed reading time rather than the total fre...

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“…One diagnostic criterion for such measures is sensitivity to whole-word frequency. Both eye fixation and electrophysiological measures meet this criterion, and yield inhibitory influences of syllable frequency (Barber et al, 2004;Hutzler et al, 2004Hutzler et al, , 2005. …”

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Syllable frequency in lexical decision and naming of English words

Macizo

Petten

2006

Read Writ

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“…An inhibitory effect was found, high syllable-frequency (HSF) words being processed more slowly than low syllable-frequency (LSF) words. Since that first report, the effect has been replicated in several languages: Spanish (Alvarez, Carreiras, & Taft, 2001;Conrad, Carreiras, & Jacobs, 2008;Conrad, Carreiras, Tamm, & Jacobs, 2009), French (Chetail & Mathey, 2009;Conrad, Grainger, & Jacobs, 2007; see also Mathey & Zagar, 2002) and German Hutzler, Conrad, & Jacobs, 2005;Stenneken, Conrad, & Jacobs, 2007). At a theoretical level, the effect has been accounted for in terms of competition among candidate words sharing the initial syllable (Carreiras et al, 1993).…”

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confidence: 94%

Electrophysiological markers of syllable frequency during written word recognition in French

Chetail

Colin

2012

Neuropsychologia

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a b s t r a c tSeveral empirical lines of investigation support the idea that syllable-sized units may be involved in visual word recognition processes. In this perspective, the present study aimed at investigating further the nature of the process that causes syllabic effects in reading. To do so, the syllable frequency effect was investigated in French using event related potentials while participants performed a lexical decision task (Experiment 1). Consistent with previous studies, manipulating the frequency of the first syllable in words and pseudowords yielded two temporally distinct effects. Compared to items with a first syllable of low frequency, items with a syllable of high frequency elicited a weaker P200 component, reflecting early sub-lexical facilitation, and a larger N400 component, supposed to ensue from competition between syllabic neighbours. To examine which factors determine the strength of interference during lexical access, regression analyses were conducted on the late temporal window potentials. The inhibitory syllable frequency effect was best predicted by leader strength, that is, the frequency ratio between the most frequent syllabic neighbour and the others. When this variable was directly manipulated while controlling for syllable frequency and number of higher frequency syllabic neighbours (Experiment 2), electrophysiological data confirmed the impact of leader strength. The results are discussed in the context of interactive activation-based models augmented with syllabic representations.

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“…an effect of the number of syllables in naming and lexical decision latencies for visually presented words has been shown in english (an irregular but not syllable-stressed language; Jared & Seidenberg, 1993;new et al, 2006), in french (an irregular and syllable-stressed language; ferrand, 2000; ferrand & new, 2003), and in german (a regular but not syllable-stressed language; Stenneken, 2007). additional support for the involvement of syllables in reading comes from syllable frequency studies conducted in Spanish (Álvarez, carreiras, & perea, 2004), german (hutzler, conrad, & Jacobs, 2005), and english (macizo & van petten, 2007; ashby & rayner, 2004).…”

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Sublexical Effects on Eye Movements During Repeated Reading of Words and Pseudowords in Finnish

Hautala¹,

Hyönä²,

Aro³

et al. 2011

Psychology of Language and Communication

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Sublexical effectS on eye movementS during repeated reading of wordS and pSeudowordS in finniSh the role of different orthographic units (letters, syllables, words) in reading of orthographically transparent finnish language was studied by independently manipulating the number of letters (nol) and syllables (noS) in words and pseudowords and by recording eye movements during repeated reading aloud of these items. fluent adult readers showed evidence for using larger orthographic units in (pseudo)word recoding, whereas dysfluent children seem to be stuck in a letter-based decoding strategy, as lexicality and item repetition decreased the nol effect only among adult readers. the noS manipulation produced weak repetition effects in both groups. however, dysfluent children showed evidence for word-specific knowledge by making fewer fixations on words than pseudowords; moreover, repetition effects were more noticeable for words than pseudowords, as indexed by shortened average fixation durations on words due to item repetition. the number of fixations was generally reduced by repetition among dysfluent children, suggesting familiarity-based benefits perhaps at the perceptual level of processing.

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Effects of syllable-frequency in lexical decision and naming: An eye-movement study

Cited by 38 publications

References 31 publications

Syllable frequency in lexical decision and naming of English words

Syllable frequency in lexical decision and naming of English words

Electrophysiological markers of syllable frequency during written word recognition in French

Sublexical Effects on Eye Movements During Repeated Reading of Words and Pseudowords in Finnish

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