The role of semantic activation during word recognition in Arabic

In the current study, the role of semantic activation in the process of word recognition was investigated among native Arab readers. Twenty-nine typical readers in third grade were tested in reading three lists of pseudowords. Each list consisted of thirty pseudowords (lists A, B and C). Each word in list A was matched with a real meaning, and each participant was trained during eight training sessions to learn the meanings of the pseudowords (the semantic list). For list B, the participants were exposed only to the phonological pronunciation of each word during eight phonological training sessions. List “C” was not used for trained at all, and the participants were not exposed to this list either semantically or phonologically. The training processes occurred aloud, and the participants were not exposed to the orthographic pattern of any pseudoword. The results showed that reading the semantic pseudowords revealed the highest accuracy levels and shorter reading times compared to reading the pseudowords from the phonological training trial and the unfamiliar pseudowords. The results support the assumption about the role of semantic activation in word recognition and shed light on the importance of vocabulary knowledge to the process of reading new words.