Arcara, G. 1 , De Marchi, C. 1 , Lacaita, G. 3 , Semenza, C. . 4, 5 , Jarema, G. 6, 7 & Mondini, S. 1, 2
1 Department of General Psychology, University of Padua, Padua, Italy
2 Figlie di San Camillo, Cremona, Italy
3 Department of Linguistics, University of Padua, Padua, Italy
4 Department of Neuroscience, University of Padua, Padua, Italy
5 I.R.C.C.S. Ospedale S.Camillo, Lido di Venezia, Italy
6 Université de Montréal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
7 Centre de Recherche de l'Institut Universitaire de Gériatrie de Montréal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Irreversible Binomials (IBs) are complex linguistic constructions consisting of two words, or constituents, conjoined by a linking element (e.g. “hit and run”). The aim of this study is to explore how IBs are represented in the mental lexicon and how their processing is influenced by transparency and by other psycholinguistic variables (familiarity, frequency, length, and conditional probability of both whole-sequences and constituents). Thirty three university students performed a reading aloud task. Experimental stimuli constisted of 60 IBs and 60 fillers. IBs were divided into 30 opaque IBs (e.g., “odds and ends”) and 30 transparent IBs (e.g. “paper and pencil”). Participants were asked to read stimuli aloud as fast as possible. Data were analyzed through Mixed effects models (Baayen, 2007). The dependent variable was the reading latency and several psycholinguistic variables were considered as predictors. Results showed that increases in word-sequence familiarity and transparency were associated with shorter reading latencies. Thus, a whole-word representation of sequences may be crucial in IB processing. Data are discussed in relation to major theories of lexical representation (e.g., Caramazza, 1997; Levelt, Roelofs, Meyer, 1999).