The Role of Morphology and Sentence Context in Word Processing for Adults with Low Literacy

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dc.contributorBreen, Mara
dc.contributorAlderman, Nigel
dc.contributor.advisorBinder, Katherine
dc.contributor.authorMcBane, Katja
dc.date.accessioned2018-07-02T15:42:55Z
dc.date.available2018-07-02T15:42:55Z
dc.date.gradyear2018en_US
dc.date.issued2018-07-02
dc.description.abstractBoth vocabulary skill and morphological complexity, or whether words can be broken down into root words and affixes, have a significant impact on word reading for adults with low literacy. In this project, I investigated the influence of morphological complexity, root word frequency, and context strength on vocabulary acquisition and word processing of adults with low literacy and higher and lower vocabulary depth skills. Overall, participants spent less time reading morphologically complex words with high-frequency root words than with low-frequency base words or inaccessible words. Marginally significant results showed readers spent less time on target words in supportive context sentences than neutral sentences. Vocabulary depth correlated with less time spent reading high-frequency base morphologically complex words, and with higher scores on the vocabulary acquisition task for all word types. This suggests both morphological awareness and vocabulary depth are important for word processing and reading comprehension in adults with low literacy.en_US
dc.description.sponsorshipNeuroscience and Behavioren_US
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10166/4664
dc.language.isoen_USen_US
dc.rights.restrictedrestricteden_US
dc.subjectmorphologyen_US
dc.subjectsentence contexten_US
dc.subjectvocabulary depthen_US
dc.subjectword processingen_US
dc.subjectlow literacyen_US
dc.titleThe Role of Morphology and Sentence Context in Word Processing for Adults with Low Literacyen_US
dc.typeThesis
mhc.degreeUndergraduateen_US
mhc.institutionMount Holyoke College

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