title: Phonological activation of word meanings in grade 5 readers.
abstract: Three experiments examined the role of phonology in the activation of word meanings in Grade 5 students. In Experiment 1, homophone and spelling control errors were embedded in a story context and participants performed a proofreading task as they read for meaning. For both good and poor readers, more homophone errors went undetected than spelling control errors. In Experiments 2 and 3, homophone and spelling control errors were in sentence contexts. Experiment 2 used an online sentence verification task, and found that both good and poor readers were less accurate when sentences contained a homophone error than a spelling control error. Furthermore, a difference between the 2 types of sentences was observed even when participants were concurrently performing an articulation task. In Experiment 3, initial reading times were shorter on homophone errors than on spelling controls, and participants were less likely to make a regression from homophone errors than spelling controls. These experiments provide clear evidence that phonology makes an important contribution to the activation of word meanings in Grade 5 readers.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Western Ontario.
authors.forename: Debra
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Jared
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Central Michigan University.
authors.forename: Jane
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ashby
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Central Michigan University.
authors.forename: Stephen J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Agauas
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Neuroscience, and Behaviour, McMaster University.
authors.forename: Betty Ann
authors.initials: BA
authors.lastname: Levy
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D002663:Child Language; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007807:Language Tests; D008297:Male; D010700:Phonetics; D011578:Psycholinguistics; D011932:Reading