Syllable Transposition Effects in Korean Word Recognition

Research on the impact of letter transpositions in visual word recognition has yielded important clues about the nature of orthographic representations. This study investigated the impact of syllable transpositions on the recognition of Korean multisyllabic words. Results showed that rejection latencies in visual lexical decision for syllable-transposed Korean nonwords were delayed as compared with matched Korean nonwords without syllable transpositions. These findings bolster the case that the syllable provides an important functional unit in Korean word recognition, and suggest a degree of position invariance in syllable representations.