Morphological awareness and visual processing of derivational morphology in high-functioning adults with dyslexia: An avenue to compensation?

Law, J. M. , Veispak, A., Vanderauwera, J. and Ghesquière, P. (2018) Morphological awareness and visual processing of derivational morphology in high-functioning adults with dyslexia: An avenue to compensation? Applied Psycholinguistics, 39(3), pp. 483-506. (doi: 10.1017/S0142716417000467)

[img]
Preview
Text
150581.pdf - Accepted Version

537kB

Abstract

This study examined the processing of derivational morphology and its association with measures of morphological awareness and literacy outcomes in 30 Dutch-speaking high-functioning dyslexics, and 30 controls, matched for age and reading comprehension. A masked priming experiment was conducted where the semantic overlap between morphologically related pairs was manipulated as part of a lexical decision task. Measures of morphological awareness were assessed using a specifically designed sentence completion task. Significant priming effects were found in each group, yet adults with dyslexia were found to benefit more from the morphological structure than the controls. Adults with dyslexia were found to be influenced by both form (morpho-orthographic) and meaning (morphosemantic) properties of morphemes while controls were mainly influenced by morphosemantic properties. The reports suggest that morphological processing is intact in high-functioning dyslexics and a strength when compared to controls matched for reading comprehension and age. Thus, reports support morphological processing as a potential factor in the reading compensation of adults with dyslexia. However, adults with dyslexia performed significantly worse than controls on morphological awareness measures.

Item Type:Articles
Additional Information:This research was financed by the research fund of Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Grants dBOF/12/014 and OT/12/044).
Status:Published
Refereed:Yes
Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID:Law, Dr Jeremy
Authors: Law, J. M., Veispak, A., Vanderauwera, J., and Ghesquière, P.
College/School:College of Social Sciences > School of Social & Environmental Sustainability
Journal Name:Applied Psycholinguistics
Publisher:Cambridge University Press
ISSN:0142-7164
ISSN (Online):1469-1817
Published Online:23 October 2017
Copyright Holders:Copyright © 2017 Cambridge University Press
First Published:First published in Applied Psycholinguistics 39(3):483-506
Publisher Policy:Reproduced in accordance with the publisher copyright policy

University Staff: Request a correction | Enlighten Editors: Update this record