Morphological processing during visual word recognition in developing readers: Evidence from masked priming

Abstract

Masked priming studies with adult readers have provided evidence for a form-based morpho-orthographic segmentation mechanism that "blindly" decomposes any word with the appearance of morphological complexity. The present studies investigated whether evidence for structural morphological decomposition can be obtained with developing readers. We used a masked primed lexical decision design first adopted by Rastle, Davis, and New (2004), comparing truly suffixed (golden-GOLD) and pseudosuffixed (mother-MOTH) prime-target pairs with nonsuffixed controls (spinach-SPIN). Experiment 1 tested adult readers, showing that priming from both pseudo- and truly suffixed primes could be obtained using our own set of high-frequency word materials. Experiment 2 assessed a group of Year 3 and Year 5 children, but priming only occurred when prime and target shared a true morphological relationship, and not when the relationship was pseudomorphological. This pattern of results indicates that morpho-orthographic decomposition mechanisms do not become automatized until a relatively late stage in reading development.

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

“…However, recent findings from masked morphological priming suggest that morpho-orthographic decomposition is quite a late-occurring milestone in reading acquisition (Beyersmann et al, 2012). One hypothesis that has been put forward is that children first learn to link the meanings of related whole words (e.g., a painter is someone who paints, a teacher is someone who teaches), which eventually results in a form-based morphological segmentation mechanism that is applied to every letter string with the mere appearance of morphological complexity (e.g., moth-er, numb-er, flow-er).…”

“…Similarly, individual differences in spelling proficiency and morphological awareness may present confounds in previous developmental priming studies. However, masked priming evidence in children is sparse and based on rather small participant samples from selected age groups (e.g., Beyersmann et al, 2012;Quémart et al, 2011). Thus, the role of individual proficiency differences during the acquisition of morphological processing mechanisms is still not clear.…”

“…This research has generated important insights into the mechanisms and time course of morphological processing in adults (e.g., Beyersmann, Iakimova, Ziegler, & Colé, 2014;Diependaele, Sandra, & Grainger, 2009;Morris, Frank, Grainger, & Holcomb, 2007; for a review, see Rastle & Davis, 2008). However, only recently have scientists begun to explore the development of such processes in children (e.g., Beyersmann, Castles, & Coltheart, 2012;Casalis, Dusautoir, Colé, & Ducrot, 2009;Quémart, Casalis, & Colé, 2011). We first outline the key milestones from morphological processing research in adults, followed by a summary of the related evidence from reading development.…”

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

“…44 Even text written for young children is more lexically diverse than speech, 45 and there are differences in syntax too, 46 consistent with the idea that experience with text affords unique learning opportunities. And text is clearly needed for children to learn and refine their knowledge about how spelling patterns relate to spoken language: word reading skill demands efficient mappings between orthography and phonology, 47 as well as orthography and morphology, 18,19 tuned to the individual's language system. 48 One way to investigate the impact of spoken vs. written language experience on reading development would be to extract lexical statistics such as frequency and semantic diversity from corpora that sample either children's spoken or written language experience, respectively.…”

“…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.…”