How form and structure of Chinese characters affect eye movement control

Min-Yuan Ma,Hsien-Chih Chuang

doi:10.16910/jemr.8.3.3

Min-Yuan Ma, Hsien-Chih Chuang

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.16910/jemr.8.3.3

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Abstract

This study investigated the correlations between the form features and legibility of Chinese characters by employing the eye tracking method in two experiments: Experiment 1 examined factors affecting Chinese character legibility with character modules and identified the correlations between character form and legibility of crossing strokes; and Experiment 2 examined the effect of crossing strokes on subjective complicacy perception in both Chinese characters and English letters. This study determined that enclosed Chinese characters affect subjective complicacy perception and reduce saccadic amplitude. In addition, greater number of stroke crossings produced higher subjective complicacy perceived for both Chinese characters and English letters. The results of this study serve as a reference for predicting Chinese character legibility and assessing type design superiority.

Highlights

Chinese characters are logograms originated from pictograms where each one made up of a combination of components made up of strokes and forms, represents a word in the language
Another crucial factor affecting Chinese character recognition lies in the message conveyed by the contour, well as structure, which refers to the arrangement of or form, of the characters formed by character structure
Through analysis of eye movement, this study examined the effect on form complicacy and legibility of Chinese characters, indirectly inferred the intellectual representation and process of the participants, investigated the effect of module type on visual feature legibility of Chinese characters, and examined the association between human subjective perception and eye movement information

Summary

Introduction

Chinese characters are logograms originated from pictograms where each one made up of a combination of components made up of strokes and forms, represents a word in the language. In the design of Japanese signage for the highway, in order for the words to be recognized within 5-6 seconds, signage typography was designed to simplify details and magnify stroke difference in order to achieve the objective of higher legibility. Another crucial factor affecting Chinese character recognition lies in the message conveyed by the contour, well as structure, which refers to the arrangement of or form, of the characters formed by character structure. The components were originally legibility determines how easy it is to recognize the used for organizing words in the dictionary, and

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Conclusion