title: Lexical decision in children: sublexical processing or lexical search?
abstract: Length effects in the lexical decision latencies of children might indicate that children rely on sublexical processing and essentially approach the task as a naming task. We examined this possibility by means of the effects of neighbourhood size and articulatory suppression on lexical decision performance. Sixty-six beginning and 62 advanced readers performed a lexical decision task in a standard, articulatory suppression, or tapping condition. We found length effects on words and nonwords in the children's lexical decisions. However, the effects of neighbourhood size were similar to those reported for adult lexical decisions, rather than the effects previously found in children's naming. In addition, no effect was found of articulatory suppression. Both findings suggest that, despite clear length effects, children do not adopt a naming task approach but, like adults, base lexical decisions mainly on a lexical search. These results pose a challenge for several computational models of reading.
authors.affiliation: Research Institute of Child Development and Education, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands. m.vandenboer@uva.nl
authors.forename: Madelon
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: van den Boer
authors.forename: Peter F
authors.initials: PF
authors.lastname: de Jong
authors.forename: Marleen M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Haentjens-van Meeteren
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D001288:Attention; D002648:Child; D003657:Decision Making; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008037:Linguistics; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D011932:Reading; D012660:Semantics; D014706:Verbal Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D014825:Vocabulary