Influence of morphological and pseudo-morphological boundaries on activating embedded words when accessing compounds and pseudo-compounds.

According to the edge-aligned embedded word activation theory and the principle of full decomposition (Grainger & Beyersmann, 2017), (pseudo)morphemes are extracted from both edges of the whole word based on orthographic information. For example, car is extracted from the compound carport, where it...

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Publicado en:Memory & Cognition Vol. 54; no. 6; pp. 2453 - 2472
Autores principales: Taikh, Alexander, Gagné, Christina L., Spalding, Thomas
Formato: Artículo
Publicado: Springer Nature Aug2026
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Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
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        atl: Influence of morphological and pseudo-morphological boundaries on activating embedded words when accessing compounds and pseudo-compounds.
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          Taikh, Alexander
          Gagné, Christina L.
          Spalding, Thomas
        affil:
          https://ror.org/04013rx15 Department of Psychology, Concordia University of Edmonton, 7128 Ada Blvd NW, T5B 4E4, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
          https://ror.org/0160cpw27 Department of Psychology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
      su:
        Alberta
        Reading
        Task performance
        Psycholinguistics
        Psychology
        Semantics
        Cognition
        Academic medical centers
        Research funding
        Descriptive statistics
        Experimental design
        Research methodology
        Comparative studies
        Data analysis software
        Visual perception
      sug:
        subj:
          Reading
          Task performance
          Psycholinguistics
          Psychology
          Semantics
          Cognition
          Alberta
          Academic medical centers
          Research funding
          Descriptive statistics
          Experimental design
          Research methodology
          Comparative studies
          Data analysis software
          Visual perception
      keyword:
        Compound words
        Masked priming
        Morphological decomposition
        Pseudo-compound words
        Transposed letter priming effect
        Compound words
        Masked priming
        Morphological decomposition
        Pseudo-compound words
        Transposed letter priming effect
      ab: According to the edge-aligned embedded word activation theory and the principle of full decomposition (Grainger & Beyersmann, 2017), (pseudo)morphemes are extracted from both edges of the whole word based on orthographic information. For example, car is extracted from the compound carport, where it functions as a morpheme, and from the pseudo-compound carpet, where it does not, and is suppressed by the pseudo-compound. Embedded words should receive activation when the whole word can be decomposed into constituent (pseudo)morphemes, and accessing one embedded (pseudo)morpheme should facilitate access to another one. Using English compound words, Taikh et al. (2024) found that replacing boundary letters slowed down processing of the whole compound word, while replacing constituent-internal letters did not, which is consistent with the principle of full decomposition. Whereas replacing boundary letters interferes with access to both constituents, replacing constituent-internal letters allows access to the unaltered constituent. In the present study, we first replicate the findings of Taikh et al. using English compounds and then examine the principle of full decomposition in English pseudo-compounds. We find that replacing pseudo-boundary and pseudo-constituent letters slows down the processing of a pseudo-compound to a similar extent, suggesting that accessing an unaltered pseudo-constituent does not facilitate processing the altered pseudo-constituent. Our findings are consistent with the idea that embedded pseudo-constituents are suppressed by the pseudo-compound and thus do not facilitate its access. Additionally, embedded words may not receive facilitation if the recognition of the entire word requires that they be suppressed strongly enough.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype: Article
      src: R
    language: English
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