Phonological activation of word meanings in grade 5 readers.

Authors

Debra Jared, Department of Psychology, University of Western OntarioFollow
Jane Ashby, Department of Psychology, Central Michigan University
Stephen J Agauas, Department of Psychology, Central Michigan University
Betty Ann Levy, Department of Psychology, Neuroscience, and Behaviour, McMaster University

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

4-1-2016

Journal

Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition

Volume

42

Issue

4

First Page

524

Last Page

541

URL with Digital Object Identifier

10.1037/xlm0000184

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.

Notes

This article is paywalled - please seek access through your institution's library