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Chamberlain, J. M., Gagné, C. L., Spalding, T. L., & Lõo, K. (2019). Detecting spelling errors in compound and pseudocompound words. Published in Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition.
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- Author(s) / Creator(s)
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Three experiments using a spelling error detection task, in which participants were asked to determine whether words have a spelling error, investigated the extent to which morphemes and pseudo-morphemes affect word processing. We compared the processing of transparent compound words (e.g., doorbell), pseudo-compound words (e.g., carpet), and matched control words (e.g., tomato). In half of the compound and pseudo-compound words, spelling errors were created by transposing adjacent letters and, in half of the control words, errors were created by transposing letters at the same location as the matched compound or pseudo-compound words. The response time and number of correct responses were analyzed. We consistently found that correctly spelled compound words were more easily processed than matched control words, while pseudo-compound words showed a processing deficit, relative to their matched control words. When letter transpositions were introduced at the (pseudo)morpheme boundary, these effects attenuated. The results strongly suggest that morphological processing is attempted obligatorily when the orthography indicates that morphological structure is present. However, the outcomes of the morphological processing attempts are different for compounds and pseudo-compounds, as might be expected, given that only the compounds have a morphological structure that matches the structure suggested by the orthography. The findings reflect two effects: an orthographic effect that is facilitatory and not sensitive to morphological structure of the whole word, and a morphemic effect that is facilitatory for compounds but inhibitory for pseudo-compounds.
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- Date created
- 2019-12-20
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- Type of Item
- Article (Published)