Several empirical lines of investigation support the idea that syllable-sized units may be involved in visual word recognition processes. In this perspective, the present study aimed at investigating further the nature of the process that causes syllabic effects in reading. To do so, the syllable frequency effect was investigated in French using…

The processes and the cues determining the orthographic structure of polysyllabic words remain far from clear. In the present study, we investigated the role of letter category (consonant vs. vowels) in the perceptual organization of letter strings. In the syllabic counting task, participants were presented with written words matched for the…

In two experiments, French speakers detected CV or CVC sequences at the beginning of dysyllabic pseudowords varying in syllable structure and pivotal consonant. In both experiments. latencies were shorter to CV than to CVC targets and this effect of target length was generally smaller for CVC-CV than for CV-CV carriers. (Author/VWL)