A replication of morphological flanker effects in French

Abstract

Grainger et al. examined flanker effects in an experiment where target words could be morphologically complex (e.g. farmer), have a pseudo-morphological structure (e.g. corner), or have no morphological structure (e.g. cashew). Target words were flanked on both sides by the left-aligned embedded word in the related flanker condition (e.g. farm farmer farm; corn corner corn; cash cashew cash). Effects of related flankers were compared with matched unrelated flankers (e.g. book farmer book). Significantly greater effects of flanker relatedness were found with morphologically related flankers compared with both pseudo-morphological flankers and non-morphological embedded word flankers. However, more recent work in Spanish has failed to replicate this specific pattern. We therefore sought to replicate our findings in French, while increasing experimental power and modifying the nonword targets. The results of the present study successfully replicate the findings of Grainger et al. [(2021). Morphological processing in the flankers task. Language, Cognition and Neuroscience, 36(3), 288–295. https://doi.org/10.1080/23273798.2020.1810292].