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The dynamics of morphological processing in developing readers: A cross-linguistic masked priming study.
Elisabeth Beyersmann1, Petroula Mousikou2, Sascha Schroeder2
1Department of Cognitive Science and Macquarie Centre for Reading, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW 2109, Australia.
Children develop morphological processing skills over time. While embedded word activation is common in both German and French, complex morphological processing like morpho-orthographic and morpho-semantic effects appear language-specific in early development.
Area of Science:
- Developmental Psychology
- Psycholinguistics
- Cognitive Science
Background:
- Skilled readers process morphological structure rapidly.
- Acquisition of morphological processing in children is not well understood.
- Morphological processing involves understanding word parts and their meanings.
Purpose of the Study:
- Investigate the developmental trajectory of morphological processing in primary school children.
- Examine how children process morphological structure in German and French.
- Differentiate between nonmorphological word activation, morpho-orthographic decomposition, and morpho-semantics.
Main Methods:
- Longitudinal study over 2 years with German and French cohorts.
- Masked priming paradigm to assess morphological processing.
- Four priming conditions: affixed word, affixed nonword, nonaffixed nonword, and unrelated control.
Main Results:
- Robust embedded word priming effects observed in both German and French children.
- Morpho-orthographic and morpho-semantic priming effects were significant only in the French sample.
- Evidence suggests language-specific factors influence the development of morphological processing.
Conclusions:
- Children's morphological processing skills develop over time.
- Embedded word activation is a foundational skill, while complex morphological analysis may be language-dependent.
- Linguistic properties of a language significantly impact the development of morphological processing.
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