Reading strategies in orthographies of intermediate depth are flexible: modulation of length effects in Portuguese

• Type: Article in International Scientific Journal
• Date: 2010

Authors

César F. Lima (Author) Other; São Luís Castro (Author) FPCEUP

Journal

Title: European Journal of Cognitive Psychology

Vol. 22 No. 2

Pages: 190-215

ISSN: 0954-1446

Publisher: Psychology Press

Indexing

ISI Web of Knowledge - 3 Citations

ISI Web of Science

Scopus - 3 Citations

PsycInfo

Scientific classification

FOS: Social sciences > Psychology

Other information

Authenticus ID: P-003-AT1

DOI: 10.1080/09541440902750145

Abstract (EN): This paper examines the role of grapheme-phoneme conversion for skilled reading in an orthography of intermediate depth, Portuguese. The effects of word length in number of letters were determined in two studies. Mixed lists of five- and six-letter words and nonwords were presented to young adults in lexical decision and reading aloud tasks in the first study; in the second one, the length range was increased from four to six letters and an extra condition was added where words and nonwords were presented in separate, or blocked, lists. Reaction times were larger for longer words and nonwords in lexical decision, and in reading aloud mixed lists, but no effect of length was observed when reading words in blocked lists. The effect of word length is thus modulated by list composition. This is evidence that grapheme-phoneme conversion is not as predominant for phonological recoding in intermediate orthographies as it is in shallow ones, and suggests that skilled reading in those orthographies is highly responsive to tasks conditions because readers may switch from smaller segment-by-segment decoding to larger unit or lexicon-related processing.

Language: English

Type (Professor's evaluation): Scientific

Notes: <a href="http://gateway.isiknowledge.com/gateway/Gateway.cgi?GWVersion=2&SrcAuth=Alerting&SrcApp=Alerting&DestApp=WOS&DestLinkType=FullRecord&KeyUT=000275876200003">Acesso à Web of Science</a><br> <a href="http://www.scopus.com/record/display.url?eid=2-s2.0-77951433054&origin=resultslist">Acesso à Scopus</a>

No. of pages: 26