Abstract
A previous study reported that, similar to young and adult skilled readers, Italian developmental
dyslexics read pseudowords made up of a root and a derivational suffix faster and more accurately
than simple pseudowords. Unlike skilled readers, only dyslexic and reading-matched younger children
benefited from morphological structure in reading words aloud. In this study, we show that word
frequency affects the probability of morpheme-based reading, interacting with reading ability. Young
skilled readers named low- but not high-frequency morphologically complex words faster than simple
words. By contrast, the advantage for morphologically complex words was present in poor readers
irrespective of word frequency. Adult readers showed no facilitating effect of morphological structure.
These results indicate that young readers use reading units (morphemes) that are larger than the singlegrapheme
grain size. It is argued that morpheme-based reading is important for obtaining reading
fluency (rather than accuracy) in transparent orthographies and is useful particularly in children with
limited reading ability who do not fully master whole-word processing.
Lingua originale | English |
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pagine (da-a) | 513-532 |
Numero di pagine | 20 |
Rivista | Applied Psycholinguistics |
Volume | 32 |
DOI | |
Stato di pubblicazione | Pubblicato - 2011 |
Keywords
- Dyslexia
- Morphology
- Reading