| This dissertation examines how phonological and orthographic differences between languages affect visual word access by studying children and adult Spanish/English bilinguals and monolinguals. The first two experiments examined if visual word access varies cross-linguistically by studying Spanish/English adult bilinguals, priming two syllable CVCV words both within (Experiment 1) and across (Experiment 2) syllable boundaries in the two languages. Spanish readers accessed more first syllables based on within syllable primes compared to English readers. In contrast, syllable based primes helped English readers recognize more words than in Spanish, suggesting that experienced English readers activate a larger unit in the initial stages of word recognition. Primes spanning the syllable boundary affected readers of both languages in similar ways. In this priming context, primes that did not span the syllable boundary helped Spanish readers recognize more syllables, while English readers identified more words, further confirming the importance of the syllable in Spanish and suggesting a larger unit in English. Overall, the experiments provide evidence that readers use different units in accessing words in the two languages.; Two additional experiments examined if visual word access varies in the two languages according to bilingual status and developmental status by priming two syllable CVCV words with bilingual children (Experiment 3) and monolingual children (Experiment 4). Bilingual readers accessed similar units in both languages, differing only in identifying more CVC units in English---as did English monolingual readers. Monolingual Spanish readers accessed more words based on all prime types, while bilinguals accessed more words based on only one prime type. Directly comparing monolinguals to bilinguals showed differences only in Spanish, with greater bilingual access of CV and CVC units and greater monolingual access of words. Overall, the experiments provide evidence that visual word access uses different units in the two languages. The results also suggest that developing bilingual readers do not adapt the process of visual word access between languages and that they may need more time to develop complete phonological representations for both scripts. |
