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What do graded effects of semantic transparency reveal about morphological processing?
Laurie Beth Feldman1, Emily G Soltano, Matthew J Pastizzo
1University of Albany, State University of New York, 12222, USA. lf503@albany.edu
Brain and Language
|June 3, 2004
Summary
Semantic transparency aids word recognition, especially with longer processing times. This effect is stronger for words with larger base morpheme families, influencing how we process related words.
Area of Science:
- Psycholinguistics
- Cognitive Psychology
- Linguistics
Background:
- Morphological facilitation explains how recognizing related word forms (e.g., 'casualness' from 'casually') is faster.
- Semantic transparency, where the meaning of a word is clear from its parts, may influence this facilitation.
- Previous research has explored morphological processing, but the specific role of semantic transparency requires further investigation.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate how semantic transparency affects morphological facilitation in English word recognition.
- To determine the impact of prime-target stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) and modality on semantic transparency effects.
- To examine if the graded effect of semantic transparency is influenced by the family size of the base morpheme.
Main Methods:
- Three lexical decision experiments were conducted using visual targets (e.g., CASUALNESS).
- Experiments varied prime modality (auditory/visual) and stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) (48 ms, 83 ms, 250 ms).
- Semantically transparent (e.g., CASUALLY) and opaque (e.g., CASUALTY) primes were used to assess facilitation differences.
Main Results:
- Decision latencies were faster for targets following semantically transparent primes compared to opaque primes at a 250 ms SOA.
- This facilitation effect was observed regardless of prime modality (auditory or visual).
- No significant difference in latencies was found at shorter SOAs (48 ms, 83 ms) or with a forward mask.
Conclusions:
- Semantic transparency significantly influences morphological facilitation in English word recognition, particularly at longer stimulus onset asynchronies.
- The effect of semantic transparency is graded, with larger facilitation observed for words derived from larger base morpheme families.
- These findings suggest that both form and meaning contribute to efficient word processing, with temporal factors playing a crucial role.
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