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Updated: Sep 25, 2026

Comparing the Frequency Effect Between the Lexical Decision and Naming Tasks in Chinese
Published on: April 1, 2016
The effects of morphology on the processing of compound words: evidence from naming, lexical decisions and eye
Barbara J Juhasz1, Matthew S Starr, Albrecht W Inhoff
1Department of Psychology, University of Massachusetts at Amherst, 01003, USA. bjjuhasz@psych.umass.edu
Abstract:
The use of lexemes during the recognition of spatially unified familiar English compounds was examined in naming, lexical decision and sentence-reading tasks by manipulating beginning and ending lexeme frequencies while controlling overall compound frequencies. All tasks revealed robust ending lexeme frequency effects, with compound processing being more effective when the ending lexeme was a high-frequency word. Beginning lexeme frequency effects were more elusive and dependent on task demands. Eye movements, recorded during sentence reading, also indicated that the effects of ending lexemes occurred after the first fixation during compound viewing. Together, the results suggest either that the ending lexeme is used as an access code to locate the meaning of the full compound word or that its meaning is coactive with the meaning of the full compound.
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