Abstract
Recent research has found that the omission of accent marks in Spanish does not produce slower word identification times in go/no-go lexical decision and semantic categorization tasks [e.g., cárcel (prison) = carcel], thus suggesting that vowels like á and a are represented by the same orthographic units during word recognition and reading. However, there is a discrepant finding with the yes/no lexical decision task, where the words with the omitted accent mark produced longer response times than the words with the accent mark. In Experiment 1, we examined this discrepant finding by running a yes/no lexical decision experiment comparing the effects for words and non-words. Results showed slower response times for the words with omitted accent mark than for those with the accent mark present (e.g., cárcel < carcel). Critically, we found the opposite pattern for non-words: response times were longer for the non-words with accent marks (e.g., cárdil > cardil), thus suggesting a bias toward a “word” response for accented items in the yes/no lexical decision task. To test this interpretation, Experiment 2 used the same stimuli with a blocked design (i.e., accent mark present vs. omitted in all items) and a go/no-go lexical decision task (i.e., respond only to “words”). Results showed similar response times to words regardless of whether the accent mark was omitted (e.g., cárcel = carcel). This pattern strongly suggests that the longer response times to words with an omitted accent mark in yes/no lexical decision experiments are a task-dependent effect rather than a genuine reading cost.
Highlights
One of the most characteristic features of written Spanish—together with the letter ñ—is the presence of acute accents in words
Accent marks in Italian are mostly used for polysyllabic words with a stressed final vowel [e.g., libertà] or to tell apart otherwise homonym words with a different accented syllable [e.g., àncora vs. ancora]
To obtain the full picture, we examined the word and nonword data in a yes/no lexical decision task (Experiment 1) and in a go/no-go lexical decision task (Experiment 2)
Summary
One of the most characteristic features of written Spanish—together with the letter ñ—is the presence of acute accents in words. These accent marks indicate, under some rules, which one is the stressed vowel in the word [e.g., mítico (mythic); lápiz (pencil); camión (truck); see Marcet and Perea, 2021, for an overview of the rules of accentuation in Spanish; see Real Academia Española, 2010, for a more detailed description]. Many renowned writers and scholars have advocated for a much more lenient use of accent marks in a language where more than 80% of words have their stress in the last-but-one syllable (Quilis, 1993). Accent marks in Italian are mostly used for polysyllabic words with a stressed final vowel [e.g., libertà (freedom)] or to tell apart otherwise homonym words with a different accented syllable [e.g., àncora (anchor) vs. ancora (still)] (see Colombo and Sulpizio, 2021)
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