Prelexical phonological coding of visual words in Dutch: Automatic after all

Abstract

This paper addresses a previous claim (Brysbaert & Praet, 1992) that the use of prelexical phonology in visual word recognition is optional in the Dutch language. One backward masking experiment and two masked priming experiments are reported. The experimental task was perceptual identification. Pseudohomophones, graphemic controls, and unrelated controls of the target words were used as masks or primes. The main findings were (1) unlike previous claims, the pseudohomophone effect is not strategic in Dutch, but (2) the effect is more clearly obtained with the masked priming procedure than with the backward masking procedure.