Studies investigating relations between morphological awareness and literacy in German, a language with a rather transparent but asymmetric orthography, are sparse. Little is known about the role of grade level for these relationships and of their relative strength compared to those between other language-related variables and literacy skills.…

Masked priming studies have shown that readers decompose morphologically complex words ("read+er"). Interindividual differences have been suggested to affect this phenomenon. However, its development is poorly understood. We addressed this issue by taking a longitudinal approach that allows greater rigor in establishing the relationship…

In a cross-sectional study, we examined the relationship between the quality of lexical representations and text comprehension skill in German primary school children (Grades 1-4). We measured the efficiency and accuracy of orthographical, phonological, and meaning representations by means of computerized tests. Text comprehension skill was…