Effect of Syllable Congruency in Sixth Graders in the Lexical Decision Task With Masked Priming

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the role of the syllable in visual recognition of French words in Grade 6. To do so, the syllabic congruency effect was examined in the lexical decision task combined with masked priming. Target words were preceded by pseudoword primes sharing the first letters that either corresponded to the syllable (congruent condition) or not (incongruent condition). A reliable syllable congruency was found. Children were faster to recognize words when the prime matched for the first syllable. These results are discussed in interactive activation models including syllables and in the dual-route approach.

Notes

¹The dots mark syllable boundaries, though the items presented did not contain the dots.

²Uppercase letters and lowercase letters represent two different colors, though the items were entirely presented in lowercase.