Semantic transparency and masked morphological priming: The case of prefixed words

In four lexical decision experiments we investigated masked morphological priming with Dutch prefixed words. Reliable effects of morphological relatedness were obtained with visual primes and visual targets in the absence of effects due to pure form overlap. In certain conditions, priming effects were significantly greater with semantically transparent prefixed primes (e.g., rename-name) relative to the priming effects obtained with semantically opaque prefixed words (e.g., relate-late), even with very brief (40ms) prime durations. With visual primes and auditory targets (cross-modal priming), significant facilitation was found for all related prime conditions independently of whether or not primes were morphologically related to targets. The results are interpreted within a bimodal hierarchical model of word recognition where morphological effects arise through the interplay of sublexical (morpho-orthographic) and supralexical (morpho-semantic) representations