Processing of Phonological and Orthographic Information in Word Recognition in Discourse Reading

Xiaoyun Wang,Degao Li

doi:10.1177/2158244019861502

Abstract

To examine the processing of phonological and configurational information in word recognition in discourse reading, we conducted two experiments using the self-paced reading paradigm. The materials were three-sentence discourses, in each of which the last word of the second sentence and the third word from the end of the last sentence formed a prime–target pair. The discourse in which the target word (T) was semantically congruent or incongruent with the prime word was converted into a new version by replacing the T with its homophone or with the control word (con-T) in Experiment 1. Similarly, the Ts were replaced by words that were similar to them in configuration or by the con-Ts in Experiment 2. We adopted mixed-effects modeling to analyze the participants’ reading times to the targets, the first words after the targets, and the second words after the targets. It is concluded that the processing of phonological information begins earlier than that of configurational information in activating the semantic representations for the upcoming words that fit the context in discourse reading.

Highlights

Due to the grapheme–phoneme mapping, it seems difficult to disentangle the contribution of phonological from that of orthographic information in word recognition in alphabetic languages (Chen, Yamauchi, Tamaoka, & Vaid, 2007)
Probability was included in addition to congruency and target in the mixedeffects modeling on the reading time (RT) scores to the target word (Target), Target 1s, and Target 2s
A reliable effect of discourse congruency was found on the comprehension of the target words

Summary

Introduction

Due to the grapheme–phoneme mapping, it seems difficult to disentangle the contribution of phonological from that of orthographic information in word recognition in alphabetic languages (Chen, Yamauchi, Tamaoka, & Vaid, 2007). The mandatory involvement of the processing of phonological information in accessing the semantic representations of the targets in Ma et al (2016) seems to confirm Perfetti and Tan’s (1998) conclusion on the possibility of meaning retrieval as a result of the processing of phonological information Another line of studies, has failed to indicate the contribution of phonological processing to the activation of semantic representations in word recognition in Chinese Targets (e.g., 识 [shi2] know), homophones (e.g., 食 [shi2] eat), Chinese characters that were orthographically similar to the targets (e.g., 织 [zhi1] knit), or controls (e.g., 考 [kao3] check) were embedded They failed to reveal early activations of semantic representations as a result of the processing of phonological information. As only the first Chinese characters of the two-character words (e.g., 识别 [shi2bie2] recognize) were manipulated in these studies, the observed effects might have been an indication of orthographic and phonological processing at the sub-word level

Results

Discussion

Conclusion