title: Syllable priming with pseudowords in the lexical decision task.
abstract: This study investigated the processes underlying the effect of masked syllable priming in French with pseudoword primes and word targets. Two lexical-decision task (LDT) experiments examined whether the syllable priming effect depends on syllable frequency and might rely on a general abstract structure. The results of Experiment 1 revealed an inhibitory priming effect, with pseudoword primes and word targets sharing a high-frequency first syllable, which was not due to the abstract syllable structure. In contrast, no inhibition was observed with a low-frequency first syllable in Experiment 2. Syllable frequency appears to be an important factor determining the speed of target processing in masked priming. This is attributed to variations in the respective contributions of sublexical activation and lexical inhibition processes.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Psychologie, Université Bordeaux Segalen.
authors.forename: Stéphanie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mathey
authors.forename: Nadège
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Doignon-Camus
authors.forename: Fabienne
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Chetail
mesh_terms: D000704:Analysis of Variance; D003657:Decision Making / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D010700:Phonetics; D011578:Psycholinguistics; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D013334:Students; D014495:Universities; D014825:Vocabulary