title: Novel word lexicalization and the prime lexicality effect.
abstract: This study investigates how newly learned words are integrated into the first-language lexicon using masked priming. Two lexical decision experiments are reported, with the aim of establishing whether newly learned words behave like real words in a masked form priming experiment. If they do, they should show a prime lexicality effect (PLE), in which less priming is obtained due to form similarity when the prime is a word. In the first experiment, subjects were taught the meanings of novel words that were neighbors of real words, but no PLE was observed; that is, equally strong form priming was obtained for both trained and untrained novel primes. In the second experiment, 4 training sessions were spread over 4 weeks, and under these conditions, a clear PLE was obtained in the final session. It is concluded that lexicalization requires multiple training sessions. Possible explanations of the PLE are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Second Language Acquisition and Teaching, Universityof Arizona, USA. xqiao@mail.shufe.edu.cn
authors.forename: Xiaomei
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Qiao
authors.forename: Kenneth I
authors.initials: KI
authors.lastname: Forster
mesh_terms: D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001245:Association Learning / Q000502:physiology; D003657:Decision Making; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010470:Perceptual Masking; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D012660:Semantics; D013334:Students; D014495:Universities; D014706:Verbal Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D014825:Vocabulary