Normative data for logographic and lexical Japanese paired associates

Abstract

The current study aimed to provide normative paired-associate data for an unexplored logographic language system (Japanese). 240 participants with a mean age of 21.8 (SD = 3.6) were randomly allocated to one of three conditions in an independent groups design: logographic (Japanese symbol - English word), lexical (Japanese word - English word), or abstract paired associates (Japanese symbol - Japanese word). Participants underwent three study-test trials in each condition. Recall accuracy was found to increase across trials whilst relative item difficulty (correlations between trials in each condition) remained similar. A simultaneous multiple regression revealed that Japanese symbol stroke count was the only reliable and significant predictor of recall accuracy. Metacognitive measures, when correlated with recall accuracy, showed that participants were generally aware of how well they had learned the paired associates. Based on prior research into memory for pictures and words, we hypothesized that the recall accuracy of participants in the logographic condition would exceed that of those in the lexical condition. This hypothesis was rejected following a post hoc independent t-test comparing the two groups. This study provides a thorough normative data set that can be customized by researchers for diverse purposes in addition to novel insights, such as revealing participants’ recall accuracy for abstract paired associates for which they had no previous semantic representations.