Do young readers have fast access to abstract lexical representations? Evidence from masked priming

• We examined whether young readers have fast access to abstract representations.
• A masked priming lexical decision was conducted with 3rd–5th graders and adults.
• Results revealed fast access to abstract representations in 5th graders and adults.
• Masked priming in 3rd graders may not rely on the same mechanism as in older children.

Although there is consensus that adult readers have fast access to abstract letter/word representations, the developmental trajectory of such access has not been mapped out yet. To examine whether developmental readers have rapid access to abstract representations during the early stages of word processing, we conducted a masked priming lexical decision experiment with two groups of young readers (third and fifth graders) and a group of young adults. We selected two types of words: (a) words composed of cross-case letters that are visually dissimilar (DIS words; e.g., arte/ARTE [Spanish for art]) and (b) words composed of cross-case letters that are visually similar (SIM words; e.g., vivo/VIVO [Spanish for alive]). For young adults and fifth graders, response times for DIS and SIM words were very similar in the matched- and mismatched-case identity priming conditions, which in turn produced shorter responses than the unrelated condition (i.e., ARTE–ARTE = arte–ARTE < edad–ARTE). This is consistent with the idea that there is fast access to abstract representations. In contrast, this process does not seem to be fully operative in third graders, as revealed by the pattern of data with DIS words (ARTE–ARTE < arte–ARTE = edad–ARTE). These findings have relevant implications for developmental models of visual word recognition and for the use of masked priming experiments with developmental readers.