Masked cross-modal morphological priming: Unravelling morpho-orthographic and morpho-semantic influences in early word recognition

Two experiments examined priming from semantically transparent and opaque suffix-derivations (including pseudo-derived words such as corner), using the masked cross-modal priming technique. Experiment 1 showed that in a Dutch lexical decision task, latencies to root targets were facilitated when visually presented primes were transparent derivations of the target, regardless of whether targets were presented visually or auditorily. Pseudo-derivations only provided weak evidence for priming and only when targets were presented visually. In Experiment 2 we tested transparent and opaque priming more thoroughly in a French lexical decision task by using the incremental priming technique in combination with a psychophysical approach. The results showed that opaque as well as transparent derivations facilitated the visual and auditory processing of their (pseudo-) root. However, transparent priming occurred earlier than opaque priming in the visual modality. Moreover, when facilitation from opaque derivations appeared in the visual modality, transparent derivations produced a larger facilitation effect. We argue that our findings illustrate the existence of two distinct processing systems underlying early morphological processing: a morpho-orthographic system and a morpho-semantic system.