Semantic transparency has been extensively analyzed in research on visual word recognition. Under the masked priming paradigm, it has consistently been shown that opaque and transparent words are facilitated relative to form-related controls, but differences in priming between one condition and another have not been conclusively proven. Hence, research has been unable to theoretically elucidate the possible value of semantic transparency in the processing of derived words. This study describes two lexical decision experiments in Spanish. Experiment 1 revealed differences between the transparent and orthographic conditions, with no differences between the other conditions in the analyses of the error rates. In the second experiment, the participants visited the laboratory on two occasions, separated by a week. The task was administered twice, with participants responding to one of the experimental lists on each day. The results of this second experiment revealed significant differences in the size of the priming effect of the opaque and transparent conditions compared to the form-related condition, but without differences between these two effects. We discuss these findings from the perspective of current models of visual lexical processing.

Abstract. This study tried to replicate and extend the semantic transparency morphological effect using the flanker lexical decision paradigm ( Grainger et al., 2020 ). In the first experiment, stems were used as flankers of target words that could be truly morphological ( hunt hunter hunt), pseudomorphological ( corn corner corn), or form-related with the flanker ( broth brothel broth). In half of the trials, a related flanker was employed, and in the other half, an unrelated word was presented as flanker (e.g., table player table). The results showed a facilitative effect for the related condition as a main effect with no difference between experimental conditions. These results were interpreted in terms of an orthographic facilitation taking place when whole stems are presented as flankers. In the second experiment, short derivational suffixes were used as flankers of the same targets employed in the first experiment. The results showed an inhibitory effect of the same magnitude for the transparent and pseudomorphological conditions with no effect for the form condition. This finding suggests an inhibitory effect by which morphemes activate several lexical candidates that compete for recognition. Overall, the results are interpreted in terms of the cognitive requirements of the experimental task, the items selected, and the current models of morphological processing.

This study explored the flexibility of the orthographic processing at parafoveal level by manipulating the relationship between flankers and targets in two lexical decision tasks. In the first, we presented the following flankers: (1) the same words as targets (farola farola farola); (2) targets with transposed non-adjacent letters (falora farola falora); (3) the targets with one different letter (fapola farola fapola); and (4) unrelated pseudowords as control stimuli (pilata farola pilata). The results show significant facilitatory effects for all three experimental conditions in comparison to the Unrelated one, as well as differences between the Transposed and One Different Letter when compared to the Identity condition. In the second experiment, the procedure was the same but with the following modifications: the transposed non-adjacent letters were vowels instead of consonants (forala farola forala), and we also presented a condition in which both vowels and consonants were transposed (folara farola folara). The results of the response latencies showed that all the experimental conditions generated facilitatory effects in comparison to the Unrelated condition, with no differences between them, although the analyses of the error rates additionally showed significant differences between the Identity and the Transposed and Vowel and Consonant Transposed conditions. These two experiments are interpreted in terms of a highly flexible orthographic processing of flankers at parafoveal level, both in relation to letter ordering and letter identification.

In this study, we explored the role of morphology and imageability in pseudoword processing while recording pupillary responses in a lexical decision task that included polymorphemic (“footbalist”), suffixed (“smopify”), and simple pseudowords (“gresmor”), which also varied in imageability. The behavioral results of the mixed-model analyses showed longer latencies and higher error rates for highly imageable polymorphemic pseudowords relative to suffixed pseudowords. Suffixed pseudowords also generated longer latencies than simple pseudowords. The effect of imageability reached significance in these comparisons. With respect to the physiological data, significant differences emerged in the peak latencies between polymorphemic and the other two types of pseudowords, simple and suffixed. Overall findings were interpreted to index processing costs associated with the inhibition of word-like responses in morphological pseudowords while highlighting the intrinsic relationship between morphological and semantic processing. Physiological results allow us to associate for the first-time changes in the pupils to pseudowords processing.