The Word Composite Effect Depends on Abstract Lexical Representations But Not Surface Features Like Case and Font.

ABSTRACT: Prior studies have shown that words show a composite effect: When readers perform a same-different matching task on a target-part of a word, performance is affected by the irrelevant part, whose influence is severely reduced when the two parts are misaligned. However, the locus of this word composite effect is largely unknown. To enlighten it, in two experiments, Portuguese readers performed the composite task on letter strings: in Experiment 1, in written words varying in surface features (between-participants: courier, notera, alternating-cAsE), and in Experiment 2 in pseudowords. The word composite effect, signaled by a significant interaction between alignment of the two word parts and congruence between parts was found in the three conditions of Experiment 1, being unaffected by NoVeL

SUBMITTER: Ventura P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5476921 | biostudies-literature | 2017

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature