Do syllables matter in visual word recognition? – German evidence extended and reviewed.

Loth S, Davis CJ. Do syllables matter in visual word recognition? – German evidence extended and reviewed. Presented at the Experimental Psychology Society - London Meeting, London, UK. ; Although research has established the phonologicalsyllable as a processing unit in speech production (e.g., Levelt & Wheeldon, 1994), its role in recognition is somewhat controversial. There was no clear syllabic effect in speech perception in English (e.g., Cutler, Mehler, Norris, & Segui, 1986), and also no clear-cut effects in visual word recognition in English (Macizo & van Petten, 2006). However, inhibitory effects of syllable frequency have been reported in German visual word recognition (Conrad, Stenneken, & Jacobs, 2006). In this poster we examine the latter effects more closely, and conclude that they find their basis in morphological processing rather than in syllabification processes. This criticism is applicable to (virtually) all items in German syllable frequency research (Hutzler, Conrad, & Jacobs, 2005; Conrad & Jacobs, 2004; Conrad, Stenneken, & Jacobs, 2006). We report a new experiment that shows no effect of first syllable frequency in a lexical decision task in German. These data challenge the claim that syllabic units affect visual word recognition.