Visual word recognition of multisyllabic words

• Published in: Journal of memory and language Vol. 60; no. 4; pp. 502 - 529
• Main Authors: Yap, Melvin J., Balota, David A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier Inc 01.05.2009; Elsevier; Elsevier BV
• Subjects: Biological and medical sciences; Cognition & reasoning; Computational models; Eyes & eyesight; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Language; Lexical decision; Megastudies; Multisyllabic words; Perception; Phonology; Production and perception of written language; Pronunciation; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Semantics; Sensory perception; Speeded pronunciation; Syllables; Vision; Visual word recognition; Word Frequency; Word Recognition; Speeded pronunciation; Megastudies; Multisyllabic words; Computational models; Lexical decision; Visual word recognition; Human; Word; Pronunciation; Cognition; Verbal perception; Velocity; Reading; Language; Vision; Simulation model; Recognition
• ISSN: 0749-596X; 1096-0821
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jml.2009.02.001

The visual word recognition literature has been dominated by the study of monosyllabic words in factorial experiments, computational models, and megastudies. However, it is not yet clear whether the behavioral effects reported for monosyllabic words generalize reliably to multisyllabic words. Hierarchical regression techniques were used to examine the effects of standard variables (phonological onsets, stress pattern, length, orthographic N, phonological N, word frequency) and additional variables (number of syllables, feedforward and feedback phonological consistency, novel orthographic and phonological similarity measures, semantics) on the pronunciation and lexical decision latencies of 6115 monomorphemic multisyllabic words. These predictors accounted for 61.2% and 61.6% of the variance in pronunciation and lexical decision latencies, respectively, higher than the estimates reported by previous monosyllabic studies. The findings we report represent a well-specified set of benchmark phenomena for constraining nascent multisyllabic models of English word recognition.