Research Symposium

BIO

Sophomore at FSU pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Psychology & a minor in Biology, with aspirations to work in the field of clinical neuropsychology. Involved on campus through CHAARG, a women's health/fitness club, and an RA in the Dozier lab at FSU.

Bound for Reading

Abstract

When examining the structure of words, complex words can be defined as multisyllabic words with instances of letter-sound irregularity. More specifically, words are divided into monomorphemic or polymorphemic structures. "Bound-only complex words” is a term that describes polymorphemic complex words that do not include a base word with significant meaning (Dozier, 2025). Our research investigates whether bound-only complex words have a more significant variance than polymorphemic complex words with a base word when controlling for frequency, transparency, and context diversity. Because recent reading trends display that about 30% of students are at or above proficiency in their reading levels, we hope to gain insight into the main factors that affect reading development (NAEP Reading: Reading Results, 2022). Data was collected from 75 middle-school students in the southeastern United States across a variety of assessments that examine different reading skills. The data will be run through a coding platform to determine what categories of words are more challenging for students. We expect that bound-only words will have an increased complexity rating due to the lack of a meaningful base word morpheme that provides important context to readers. The findings of this research could be significant in determining what impedes and improves reading development, particularly for older students who typically are not the subject of reading literacy research.

Keywords: Literacy, adolescent, reading