Incidental word learning: The role of decomposition in the learning of pseudocompound words

Abstract

Incidental word learning refers to the learning of new words as a by-product of reading. We are interested in how decomposition of words into smaller units (morphemes) impacts this learning process and how this interacts with semantic transparency. We have developed pseudo-compound words which will be presented in two broad learning conditions (1) as decomposed into pseudo-morphemes, or (2) as whole words/full lexical units. All pseudo-compound words will be presented as either transparent (having a relationship to their morphemic constituents) or opaque (having no relationship to their morphemic units). We hypothesise decomposition of transparent pseudo-compounds will result in more effective learning for semantically transparent word forms. We present a basic proposal of this research and a subsequent BPS funded pre-screen study.