The University of Southampton
University of Southampton Institutional Repository

Orthographic and root frequency effects in Arabic: evidence from eye movements and lexical decision

Orthographic and root frequency effects in Arabic: evidence from eye movements and lexical decision
Orthographic and root frequency effects in Arabic: evidence from eye movements and lexical decision
One of the most studied and robust effects in the reading literature is that of word frequency. Semitic words (e.g., in Arabic or Hebrew) contain roots that indicate the core meaning to which the word belongs. The effects of the frequency of these roots on reading as measured by eye movements is much less understood. In a series of experiments, we investigated and replicated traditional word frequency effects in Arabic: Eye movement measures showed the expected facilitation for high- over low-frequency target words embedded in sentences (Experiment 1). The same was found in response time and accuracy in a lexical decision task (Experiment 3a). Using target words that were matched on overall orthographic frequency and other important variables, but that contained either high- or low-frequency roots, we found no significant influence of root frequency on eye movement measures during sentence reading (Experiment 2). Using the same target words in a lexical decision task (Experiment 3b), we replicated the absence of root frequency effects on real Arabic word processing. At first glance, the results may not appear to be in line with theoretical accounts that postulate early morphological decomposition and root identification when processing Semitic words. However, these results are compatible with accounts where morphological decomposition does occur but is followed by re-combination, and under certain conditions re-combination costs can eliminate or even reverse root frequency effects.
1939-1285
934-954
Hermena, Ehab
e9f16bbc-3201-4af5-ab78-d651105994cd
Liversedge, Simon P
3ebda3f3-d930-4f89-85d5-5654d8fe7dee
Bouamama, Sana
7b28c8ce-2820-4a2b-a47b-67c3be027a53
Drieghe, Denis
dfe41922-1cea-47f4-904b-26d5c9fe85ce
Hermena, Ehab
e9f16bbc-3201-4af5-ab78-d651105994cd
Liversedge, Simon P
3ebda3f3-d930-4f89-85d5-5654d8fe7dee
Bouamama, Sana
7b28c8ce-2820-4a2b-a47b-67c3be027a53
Drieghe, Denis
dfe41922-1cea-47f4-904b-26d5c9fe85ce

Hermena, Ehab, Liversedge, Simon P, Bouamama, Sana and Drieghe, Denis (2019) Orthographic and root frequency effects in Arabic: evidence from eye movements and lexical decision. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 45 (5), 934-954. (doi:10.1037/xlm0000626).

Record type: Article

Abstract

One of the most studied and robust effects in the reading literature is that of word frequency. Semitic words (e.g., in Arabic or Hebrew) contain roots that indicate the core meaning to which the word belongs. The effects of the frequency of these roots on reading as measured by eye movements is much less understood. In a series of experiments, we investigated and replicated traditional word frequency effects in Arabic: Eye movement measures showed the expected facilitation for high- over low-frequency target words embedded in sentences (Experiment 1). The same was found in response time and accuracy in a lexical decision task (Experiment 3a). Using target words that were matched on overall orthographic frequency and other important variables, but that contained either high- or low-frequency roots, we found no significant influence of root frequency on eye movement measures during sentence reading (Experiment 2). Using the same target words in a lexical decision task (Experiment 3b), we replicated the absence of root frequency effects on real Arabic word processing. At first glance, the results may not appear to be in line with theoretical accounts that postulate early morphological decomposition and root identification when processing Semitic words. However, these results are compatible with accounts where morphological decomposition does occur but is followed by re-combination, and under certain conditions re-combination costs can eliminate or even reverse root frequency effects.

Text
Hermena, Liversedge, Bouamama, & Drieghe (in press) - Accepted Manuscript
Download (1MB)

More information

Accepted/In Press date: 18 April 2018
e-pub ahead of print date: 24 September 2018
Published date: May 2019

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 420091
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/420091
ISSN: 1939-1285
PURE UUID: 9f867f3b-ae01-4508-a837-66e9b67f739e
ORCID for Denis Drieghe: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0001-9630-8410

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 26 Apr 2018 16:30
Last modified: 16 Mar 2024 04:01

Export record

Altmetrics

Contributors

Author: Ehab Hermena
Author: Simon P Liversedge
Author: Sana Bouamama
Author: Denis Drieghe ORCID iD

Download statistics

Downloads from ePrints over the past year. Other digital versions may also be available to download e.g. from the publisher's website.

View more statistics

Atom RSS 1.0 RSS 2.0

Contact ePrints Soton: eprints@soton.ac.uk

ePrints Soton supports OAI 2.0 with a base URL of http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/cgi/oai2

This repository has been built using EPrints software, developed at the University of Southampton, but available to everyone to use.

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue without changing your settings, we will assume that you are happy to receive cookies on the University of Southampton website.

×