Semantic effects as a function of reading skill in word naming of a transparent orthography

The highly transparent Turkish orthography was employed to examine imageability in relation to level of skill in two experiments. In experiment 1, previously skilled readers (n = 24) named 40 high frequency and 40 low frequency words manipulated factorially with imageability. A significant main effect was only found for frequency. In experiment 2, a total of 44 adult Turkish readers (16 very skilled and 28 skilled) named the same stimuli as in experiment 1. The results showed an expected main effect for skill and frequency. However, whilst the main effect for imageability was nonsignificant, a 2-way interaction of skill by imageability and a 3-way interaction of skill by imageability by frequency were found to be significant. Very skilled readers named high imageable low frequency words significantly faster than matched low imageable low frequency words. Insofar as poor readers are concerned the results are contradictory to previous findings in English whilst data from highly skilled participants are in line with those reported for skilled readers for English. Implications of these findings on the existing literature are discussed.