Abstract
This study investigated the character decomposition and transposition processes of Chinese two-character compound words (canonical and transposed words) and pseudowords in the right and left visual fields using a dual-target rapid serial visual presentation paradigm. The results confirmed a right visual field superiority for canonical words, but this advantage vanished for transposed words. The findings further indicated that the same quality of lexical processing could be obtained from the foveal and parafoveal regions of the right and left visual fields, regardless of the character order, but not in the periphery of the right visual field. Moreover, the proportion of order reversals peaked at the central position and the shortest exposure time, but it declined with increasing eccentricity and time interval. We concluded that the character transposition of Chinese compound words was significantly sensitive in the periphery of the right visual field. Furthermore, the character order errors were mainly encoded in the foveal vision with a duration of 100 ms, which suggested that the order of the foveally presented Chinese characters was more likely to be reversed at the early stage of visual word processing.
Highlights
IntroductionThe visual spatial field can be divided into three regions with respect to fixation: foveal (the central 2 of vision), parafoveal (the area between the foveal region and 5 on either side of the fixation), and peripheral (beyond the parafoveal boundary, i.e., beyond 5 from the fixation; Calvo, 2006; Rayner, 2009), which work together to produce our entire visual perception
The visual spatial field can be divided into three regions with respect to fixation: foveal, parafoveal, and peripheral, which work together to produce our entire visual perception
We aim to answer the following two questions: (a) whether the hemispheric asymmetries are affected by the character decomposition and transposition processes of Chinese compound words? whether the left–right asymmetries occur during different temporal lags of the two target characters? (b) whether character order errors of canonical words, transposed words, and pseudowords differ in the foveal, parafoveal, and peripheral regions of the right and left visual fields?
Summary
The visual spatial field can be divided into three regions with respect to fixation: foveal (the central 2 of vision), parafoveal (the area between the foveal region and 5 on either side of the fixation), and peripheral (beyond the parafoveal boundary, i.e., beyond 5 from the fixation; Calvo, 2006; Rayner, 2009), which work together to produce our entire visual perception. Readers can acquire more information with fixations to the right than to the left (Rayner, 1998). This preference occurs for Chinese words, there is typically one character to the left and three characters to the right of fixation for the logographic Chinese (Cheng & Yang, 1989; Inhoff & Liu, 1998; Tzeng, Hung, Cotton, & Wang, 1979; Weekes & Bi, 1999). Interesting, eye-tracking studies suggested that more information was acquired to the left of fixation when English readers were asked to read from right-to-left (Inhoff, Pollatsek, Posner & Rayner, 1989). Interesting, eye-tracking studies suggested that more information was acquired to the left of fixation when English readers were asked to read from right-to-left (Inhoff, Pollatsek, Posner & Rayner, 1989). Battista and Kalloniatis (2002) posited that this right bias was partly due to the normal reading habit rather than an innate superiority for word recognition of the right visual field
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
