Taking the Book from the Bookshelf: Masked Constituent Priming Effects from Compound Words and Nonwords

Area of Science:

• Psycholinguistics
• Cognitive Psychology
• Computational Linguistics

Background:

• Visual word recognition research highlights the role of embedded words.
• Embedded words may be activated independently of affixes or non-affixes.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the mechanisms of embedded word activation.
• To examine the role of "edge-alignedness" in embedded word processing.

Main Methods:

• Two experiments using masked priming and lexical decision tasks.
• Experiment 1: Monomorphemic targets preceded by compound words, compound nonwords, non-compound nonwords, or unrelated primes.
• Experiment 2: Priming effects for edge-aligned, mid-embedded, and outer-embedded constituents.

Main Results:

• Significant priming effects observed for embedded words in compound words, compound nonwords, and non-compound nonwords.
• Priming was greater for compound words than nonwords, indicating benefit from whole-word representations.
• Priming occurred regardless of the embedded word's position (first or second constituent).
• Significant priming effects found only for edge-aligned embedded constituents, not mid- or outer-embedded ones.

Conclusions:

• Embedded words are activated irrespective of morphemic status.
• Edge-alignedness is a critical factor for activating embedded words during visual recognition.
• Findings contribute to understanding lexical processing and word recognition models.