Abstract:
The present study investigated how native English speakers process morphologically complex words and monomorphemic words. Pseudo-complex words have a whole word meaning, but also a possible decomposition into a stem and suffix, which means that they may be processed more similarly to monomorphemic words due to the whole-word meaning or more similarly to morphologically complex words, as decomposition is possible. This study was carried out using a masked priming lexical decision task, and is unique in that it used the same target word in all experimental conditions and used only derivational suffixes. Results showed that pseudo-complex words were processed similar to monomorphemic words. Additionally, the base frequency effect was found, with higher-frequency target words being processed faster and showing fewer priming effects overall. Results were modeled with the additional measures of the sum of the word ending bigram frequencies, the possibility of an incorrect decomposition due to the presence of another suffix, and individual self-rated spelling ability. A clear segmentation and stronger spelling skills decreased reaction times. Overall, the results of the study support that pseudo complex words are processed more similarly to monomorphemic words, suggesting that no decomposition took place.
