The Role of Semantic Context in Early Morphological Processing
There is extensive evidence pointing to an early, automatic segmentation of written words into their constituent units (farm-er, wit-ness); however, less is known about the potential role of contextual information in modulating this analysis. We adapted the standard masked priming paradigm to includ...
| Main Authors: | , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Frontiers Media S.A.
2017-06-01
|
| Series: | Frontiers in Psychology |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00991/full |
| _version_ | 1819293301527805952 |
|---|---|
| author | Caroline M. Whiting Caroline M. Whiting Richard G. Cowley Mirjana Bozic |
| author_facet | Caroline M. Whiting Caroline M. Whiting Richard G. Cowley Mirjana Bozic |
| author_sort | Caroline M. Whiting |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | There is extensive evidence pointing to an early, automatic segmentation of written words into their constituent units (farm-er, wit-ness); however, less is known about the potential role of contextual information in modulating this analysis. We adapted the standard masked priming paradigm to include an overt semantic prime in order to examine whether semantic context influences morpho-orthographic segmentation of complex words. In particular, we asked how the context will affect processing of semantically opaque forms (witness), where the embedded stem (wit) is incompatible with the meaning of the whole form. Results showed no masked priming facilitation for opaque forms in the presence of a semantic prime, indicating that context can influence early morphological analysis. Priming was found for both semantically transparent and opaque forms (farmer-farm, witness-wit) when there was no semantically-related context, consistent with the literature and an account positing early blind segmentation. These findings provide an important update to the long-standing debate on early morphological processing in written word recognition. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-24T04:08:15Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-f199d9a0693e43e69148e4434c30b73b |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1664-1078 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-24T04:08:15Z |
| publishDate | 2017-06-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Psychology |
| spelling | doaj.art-f199d9a0693e43e69148e4434c30b73b2022-12-21T17:16:08ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Psychology1664-10782017-06-01810.3389/fpsyg.2017.00991265853The Role of Semantic Context in Early Morphological ProcessingCaroline M. Whiting0Caroline M. Whiting1Richard G. Cowley2Mirjana Bozic3Institute of Neuroscience and Psychology, University of GlasgowGlasgow, United KingdomDepartment of Psychology, University of CambridgeCambridge, United KingdomDepartment of Psychology, University of CambridgeCambridge, United KingdomDepartment of Psychology, University of CambridgeCambridge, United KingdomThere is extensive evidence pointing to an early, automatic segmentation of written words into their constituent units (farm-er, wit-ness); however, less is known about the potential role of contextual information in modulating this analysis. We adapted the standard masked priming paradigm to include an overt semantic prime in order to examine whether semantic context influences morpho-orthographic segmentation of complex words. In particular, we asked how the context will affect processing of semantically opaque forms (witness), where the embedded stem (wit) is incompatible with the meaning of the whole form. Results showed no masked priming facilitation for opaque forms in the presence of a semantic prime, indicating that context can influence early morphological analysis. Priming was found for both semantically transparent and opaque forms (farmer-farm, witness-wit) when there was no semantically-related context, consistent with the literature and an account positing early blind segmentation. These findings provide an important update to the long-standing debate on early morphological processing in written word recognition.http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00991/fullmorphologysemantic contextmorphological decompositionmasked primingvisual word recognition |
| spellingShingle | Caroline M. Whiting Caroline M. Whiting Richard G. Cowley Mirjana Bozic The Role of Semantic Context in Early Morphological Processing Frontiers in Psychology morphology semantic context morphological decomposition masked priming visual word recognition |
| title | The Role of Semantic Context in Early Morphological Processing |
| title_full | The Role of Semantic Context in Early Morphological Processing |
| title_fullStr | The Role of Semantic Context in Early Morphological Processing |
| title_full_unstemmed | The Role of Semantic Context in Early Morphological Processing |
| title_short | The Role of Semantic Context in Early Morphological Processing |
| title_sort | role of semantic context in early morphological processing |
| topic | morphology semantic context morphological decomposition masked priming visual word recognition |
| url | http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00991/full |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT carolinemwhiting theroleofsemanticcontextinearlymorphologicalprocessing AT carolinemwhiting theroleofsemanticcontextinearlymorphologicalprocessing AT richardgcowley theroleofsemanticcontextinearlymorphologicalprocessing AT mirjanabozic theroleofsemanticcontextinearlymorphologicalprocessing AT carolinemwhiting roleofsemanticcontextinearlymorphologicalprocessing AT carolinemwhiting roleofsemanticcontextinearlymorphologicalprocessing AT richardgcowley roleofsemanticcontextinearlymorphologicalprocessing AT mirjanabozic roleofsemanticcontextinearlymorphologicalprocessing |