title: Coda optimization in the segmentation of English polysyllabic letter-strings.
abstract: A word-spotting experiment is reported whereby participants determined whether a polysyllabic pseudoword began with a real word or not. All target words ended in a single consonant (e.g., slam) which either did or did not form a complex coda with the consonant that followed it. When it did (e.g., the mp of slampora), target detection was harder than when the target was followed by a vowel (e.g., slamorpa). When it did not (e.g., the mc of slamcora), target detection was easier. These results demonstrate a bias toward maximization of the coda when segmenting a polysyllabic letter-string which is argued to reflect the way in which polysyllabic words are represented in the mental lexicon.
authors.affiliation: University of New South Wales, <location>Sydney, Australia</location>
authors.forename: Marcus
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Taft
authors.affiliation: University of La Laguna, <location>Tenerife, Spain</location>
authors.forename: Carlos J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Álvarez
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D008037:Linguistics; D008606:Mental Processes; D014825:Vocabulary
keywords: lexical processing; polysyllabic words; syllables; visual word segmentation; word recognition; word spotting