Long-lag Repetition Priming in Natural Text Reading

Most of the empirical evidence that lays the ground for research on recognition of printed morphologically complex words comes from experimental paradigms employing morphological priming, e.g., exposure to morphologically related forms. Furthermore, most of these paradigms rely on context-less presentation of isolated words. We examined whether well-established morphological priming effects (i.e., faster recognition of a word preceded by a morphologically related word) are observable under more natural conditions of fluent text reading. Using the GECO database of eye-movements recorded during the reading of a novel, we examined the long-lag morphological and identity priming in one's first language (L1, English and Dutch) or second language (L2, English). While the effects of identity priming were ubiquitous, no evidence of morphological priming was observed in the L1 or L2 eye-movement record. We discuss implications of these findings for ecological validity and generalizability of select current theories of morphological processing.