title: The temporal dynamics of inflected word recognition: a masked ERP priming study of French verbs.
abstract: Morphological aspects of human language processing have been suggested by some to be reducible to the combination of orthographic and semantic effects, while others propose that morphological structure is represented separately from semantics and orthography and involves distinct neuro-cognitive processing mechanisms. Here we used event-related brain potentials (ERPs) to investigate semantic, morphological and formal (orthographic) processing conjointly in a masked priming paradigm. We directly compared morphological to both semantic and formal/orthographic priming (shared letters) on verbs. Masked priming was used to reduce strategic effects related to prime perception and to suppress semantic priming effects. The three types of priming led to distinct ERP and behavioral patterns: semantic priming was not found, while formal and morphological priming resulted in diverging ERP patterns. These results are consistent with models of lexical processing that make reference to morphological structure. We discuss how they fit in with the existing literature and how unresolved issues could be addressed in further studies.
authors.affiliation: École d'orthophonie et d'audiologie, Université de Montréal, C.P. 6128, Succursale Centre-Ville, Montréal, Quebec, Canada. phaedra.royle@umontreal.ca
authors.forename: Phaedra
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Royle
authors.forename: John E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Drury
authors.forename: Nicolas
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Bourguignon
authors.forename: Karsten
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Steinhauer
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001931:Brain Mapping; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D010470:Perceptual Masking / Q000502:physiology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011930:Reaction Time; D012660:Semantics; D013997:Time Factors; D014825:Vocabulary; D055815:Young Adult