We examined the influence of morphological structure and emotional content on the recognition of pseudowords in a megastudy using a lexical decision task. To this end, 1,025 native Spanish speakers responded to 1,200 experimental words and 4,800 experimental pseudowords with different morphological structures derived from emotional and neutral base words, as well as to 1,200 filler words and 1,200 filler pseudowords. Reaction times (RTs) and accuracy were analyzed using linear and generalized linear mixed-effects models, revealing an effect of morphological composition. Pseudowords containing both a real root and a real suffix elicited the slowest response times and the highest error rates, followed by those containing one real morphological component (e.g., root + non-suffix or non-root + suffix). Pseudowords lacking identifiable morphological components (e.g., non-root + non-suffix) were rejected the fastest and with the greatest accuracy. With regard to affective features, higher valence and arousal elicited higher error rates and slowed rejection times. This suggests that emotionally charged pseudowords are more likely to be perceived as real words. Furthermore, these effects interacted with morphological structure, suggesting that affective and sublexical cues contribute jointly to pseudoword processing. Overall, we show that emotional information can be accessed even in the absence of lexical representations, possibly via the activation of representations from existing words and/or by exploiting systematic links between certain sublexical features and emotional meaning. Additionally, the current study provides a database ( https://osf.io/mh3xe/ ) of reaction times and accuracy data for 2,400 Spanish words and 6,000 Spanish pseudowords that vary in emotional and morphological composition.
Careless and insufficient effort responding (C/IER) in self-report questionnaires refers to responses provided without adequate attention to item content. Latent variable mixture models have recently been proposed as a promising approach for detecting and accounting for C/IER. This study systematically evaluates the performance of mixture modeling for C/IER detection. Using an exemplar mixture model that captures core features of existing approaches, we (a) investigated, via simulations, conditions that facilitate or impede separation between response patterns indicative of attentive versus careless responding and (b) examined the validity of interpreting the latent class variable as an indicator of C/IER in an empirical application. The simulation study assessed how questionnaire and item characteristics affect latent-class identification under different C/IER response patterns. Results indicate that reliable separation is achieved when scales comprise at least ten items, exhibit substantial threshold heterogeneity, and include both positively and negatively worded items. Empirical support for the C/IER interpretation of the latent class variable was obtained by reanalyzing a publicly available Big Five inventory data set collected across multiple platforms. Model-based classifications closely corresponded to alternative C/IER indicators that do not rely on response patterns, exhibited consistency across multiple scales, and were sensitive to platform-specific differences in C/IER prevalence. Overall, the results support mixture modeling as a viable approach for addressing C/IER under many conditions commonly encountered in applied research.
This study developed the first Chinese Vocabulary Levels Test (C-VLT) designed for native Chinese learners in Grades 1 through 9, utilizing a developmental vocabulary list. The C-VLT comprises four subtests, each matched to different grade levels. Using probability proportional to size sampling, we selected 16 schools from four counties, with a total of 10,460 students participating in the test. Analyses combining classical test theory (CTT) and item response theory (IRT) showed that the test exhibited reasonable difficulty and discrimination, and no items showed differential item functioning effects, indicating high item quality and satisfactory test fairness. Additionally, all four subtests demonstrated high CTT reliability, and the IRT information curves and standard errors indicated good measurement precision for most students. Furthermore, evidence based on test content, internal structure, and theoretically expected relations to educational stage and word frequency supported the intended interpretation of C-VLT scores as indicators of recognition-based receptive Chinese vocabulary knowledge and stage-based vocabulary mastery. Item difficulty also generally increased as word frequency decreased and educational stage increased. Taken together, the C-VLT provides reliable and interpretable scores for assessing learners’ receptive Chinese vocabulary knowledge across educational stages.
HelexKids 2.0 represents an annotated expansion of the original HelexKids, a word frequency database compiled from Greek and Cypriot elementary school textbooks. This article presents the extended annotation methodology employed to enrich the database with part-of-speech tags, phonological properties (syllable count, phonetic transcription, orthographic and phonological syllabification, and stress), and morphological features (case, number, gender, and inflection class for nouns). All original frequency and lexical measures are retained, and new ones (e.g., PLD20, bigram and biphone frequencies) are added. The annotation process combined automated tools with extensive manual annotation and expert verification. We redesigned the database to assemble dynamically from the full set of textbooks, delivering results on the fly. The annotated database comprises 67,802 types and over 1.3 million tokens. We report on stress pattern distributions across major parts of speech and grade levels, show how stress is distributed by word class, and provide hierarchies of word-level syllabic templates. HelexKids 2.0 is freely available through the GRADIENCE project webpage and serves as a valuable resource for psycholinguistic and morphophonological research, as well as for educational applications.
Previous research has consistently shown differences in emotional processing between monolingual and bilingual speakers, highlighting the importance of specific standardized affective norms for studying emotional language processing in different linguistic environments. However, whereas native speaker norms of emotional dimensions are generally well established, this work is scarce in bilinguals and even more rare in populations whose second language exposure and use are circumscribed to formal, instructional contexts. The main goal of this study was to collect affective ratings for a large set of English words in a representative and homogeneous sample of instructional-setting learners of English as a foreign language (EFL). Valence and arousal indexes were obtained from more than 600 Spanish college students of EFL. Reliability and external validity analyses for both dimensions indicated valid psychometric properties for this database. Direct comparisons between the present EFL affective norms and those obtained from immersed-English students who learned English as an additional language (EAL) and English native speakers (L1) revealed interesting patterns of emotional word processing across linguistic contexts, underscoring the differential influence of immersive and formal learning environments in affective processing. Interestingly, the L1–EFL discrepancy increased as a function of affective, lexical, and sensory experience factors, and was particularly high in the arousal dimension, pointing to the important role that emotional intensity might play in the acquisition and use of emotional language. Overall, these affective norms might constitute a useful research tool to study emotional processing in EFL populations, and relevant in applied and educational contexts for the development of teaching strategies.
