Research into nonnative (L2) morphological processing has produced largely conflicting findings. To contribute to the discussions surrounding the contradictory findings in the literature, we examined L2 morphological priming effects along with a transposed-letter (TL) methodology. Critically, we also explored the potential effects of individual differences in the reading networks of L2 speakers using a test battery of reading proficiency. A masked primed lexical decision experiment was carried out in which the same target (e.g., ALLOW) was preceded by a morphological prime (allowable), a TL-within prime (allwoable), an substituted letter (SL)-within prime (allveable), a TL-across prime (alloawble), an SL-across prime (alloimble), or an unrelated prime (believable). The average data yielded morphological priming but no significant TL priming. However, the results of an exploratory analysis of the potential effects of individual differences suggested that individual variability mediated the group-level priming patterns in L2 speakers. TL-within and TL-across priming effects were obtained only when the performance of participants on nonword reading was considered, while the magnitude of the morphological priming effects diminished as the knowledge of vocabulary expanded. The results highlight the importance of considering individual differences while testing L2 populations.

中文翻译：

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衍生词第二语言处理中的字母换位和词素边界：个体差异的探索性研究

对非本地 (L2) 形态处理的研究产生了相互矛盾的发现。为了促进围绕文献中矛盾发现的讨论，我们检查了 L2 形态启动效应以及转置字母 (TL) 方法。至关重要的是，我们还使用阅读能力测试电池探索了 L2 说话者阅读网络中个体差异的潜在影响。进行了一个掩蔽启动的词汇决策实验，其中相同的目标（例如，ALLOW）前面有一个形态启动（允许的), 一个 TL-within prime (全部我有能力的)，一个替换字母 (SL)-在素数 (全部ve有能力的)，一个 TL 交叉素数 (阿洛啊布尔)，一个 SL 交叉素数 (阿洛我是布尔) 或不相关的素数 (可信的）。平均数据产生形态启动，但没有显着的 TL 启动。然而，对个体差异潜在影响的探索性分析结果表明，个体差异介导了 L2 说话者的群体水平启动模式。仅当考虑参与者在非单词阅读方面的表现时，才获得 TL-within 和 TL-cross 启动效应，而随着词汇知识的扩大，形态启动效应的幅度减小。结果强调了在测试 L2 人群时考虑个体差异的重要性。