The processing of morphologically complex words by developing readers of Turkish: a masked priming study

OĞUZ E., KIRKICI B.

READING AND WRITING, cilt.36, sa.8, ss.2053-2080, 2023 (SSCI) identifier identifier

  • Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
  • Cilt numarası: 36 Sayı: 8
  • Basım Tarihi: 2023
  • Doi Numarası: 10.1007/s11145-022-10377-0
  • Dergi Adı: READING AND WRITING
  • Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), Scopus, IBZ Online, EBSCO Education Source, Education Abstracts, Educational research abstracts (ERA), ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Index Islamicus, Linguistic Bibliography, Linguistics & Language Behavior Abstracts, MLA - Modern Language Association Database, Psycinfo
  • Sayfa Sayıları: ss.2053-2080
  • Anahtar Kelimeler: Masked morphological priming, Morphological processing, Reading development, Visual word processing, PHONOLOGICAL AWARENESS, INDIVIDUAL-DIFFERENCES, SEMANTIC SIMILARITY, READING ACQUISITION, RECOGNITION, FREQUENCY, ENGLISH, TRANSPARENT, PROFICIENCY, DYSLEXIA
  • Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet

Özet

The processing of morphologically complex words has been studied in many languages, leading to a variety of theoretical accounts. Prime type, individual differences, and cross-linguistic effects have emerged as potential factors in morphological processing, but the findings so far have been inconclusive, especially for young children. This study investigated the early stages of morphological processing in Turkish-speaking children using the visual masked priming paradigm. We used different prime conditions (truly suffixed, pseudo-suffixed, non-suffixed, and semantic) and measured reading proficiency skills (vocabulary, spelling, reading speed, and comprehension) to investigate whether prime types or individual differences modulate early word processing. Our sample of children showed priming effects for truly suffixed words, without sound differences between derived and inflected primes in their reaction times. The reaction times of the participants decreased with increasing reading proficiency in the experimental conditions. The results suggest a sensitivity for suffixes in the early word processing of Turkish primary school children rather than sensitivities for pseudo-suffixes, orthographic overlap, or semantic similarity.