The English spaced compound word database

Clinical Snapshot

Key Findings

• P Value: Not reported in the abstract

• Effect Size: Described as 'strong associations' in the abstract; specific correlation coefficients not reported

• Primary Outcome: Normative ratings (familiarity, age-of-acquisition, semantic transparency) for 1,162 English spaced compound words, with strong inter-correlations among ratings and with constituent word properties

• Nnt Or Sensitivity: Not applicable — this is a normative database study; no NNT, sensitivity, or hazard ratio is relevant. Key metric is the breadth and reliability of normative ratings across 1,162 stimuli.

• Confidence Interval: Not reported in the abstract

Clinical Application

The database is a research tool rather than a clinical intervention. Its direct clinical application lies in providing controlled stimulus materials for studies of reading disorders, vocabulary assessment, and language rehabilitation. Feasibility of use is high for researchers with access to the published database. In the Australian context, this database has relevance for researchers at Australian universities studying reading and language processing, and for speech-language pathologists developing or validating assessment tools for reading disorders. The RACGP and Speech Pathology Australia guidelines emphasise evidence-based assessment of reading and language; normative databases underpin the development of such tools. The TGA and PBS are not directly relevant as this is not a therapeutic intervention. Clinicians should note that Australian English familiarity norms may differ from those collected in a predominantly American English context, and local validation would be advisable before applying these norms to Australian clinical populations. Researchers in psycholinguistics, cognitive psychology, reading science, and speech-language pathology; clinicians and researchers studying lexical access, reading disorders (dyslexia, acquired alexia), and language rehabilitation

Abstract

Compound words combine existing words to form a new concept. Spaced compound words represent one form of compound words in which the orthographic space is preserved between the two constituent words (e.g., coffee table). While recent research has mostly focused on unspaced compound words, spaced compound words offer important insight into the cognitive processes that support lexical retrieval and comprehension. Critically, whether readers process spaced compound words as single lexical units has important implications for how these items are stored and accessed in memory. To support future research, we developed the English Spaced Compound Word Database, wherein we collected familiarity, age-of-acquisition (AoA), and semantic transparency (ST) ratings for 1,162 spaced compound words. We conducted correlational analyses to compare these ratings across words, as well as across previously collected data on compound words' constituents. These analyses revealed a strong association overall between familiarity ratings and AoA, as well as familiarity and ST. When examining the relationship between ratings and the characteristics of a compound word's constituents, we found a strong relationship between frequency, AoA, and structural simplicity (i.e., number of characters, syllables, morphemes, and lexical similarity) within all three rating tasks. These findings provide a basis for testing future theoretical models of lexical processing and reading.

References

1. 1.Riedmann, C. M., Juhasz, B. J., Liversedge, S. P., & Zang, C. (2026). The English spaced compound word database. Behavior Research Methods. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-023-02214-1