Compound word effects differ in reading, on-line naming, and delayed naming tasks

Abstract

Bimorphemic compound words (e.g., blueberry), bimorphemic suffixed words (e.g., ceaseless), and monomorphemic controls (e.g., arthritis) were read in neutral sentence contexts in Experiment 1. The main result revealed longer first fixation durations on compound words than on control and suffixed words. Different effects emerged when naming tasks were used. An on-line naming task revealed substantially shorter naming latencies for compound words than for control and suffixed words. Naming latencies for compound and control words were equivalent in a delayed naming task. These results indicate that on-line naming latencies and word-viewing durations may yield diverging results. They also suggest that activation of constituent words of compound words occurs independently from the specification of conventional word meanings.