Abstract
To separate the contribution of phonological from that of visual-orthographic information in the recognition of a Chinese word that is composed of one or two Chinese characters, we conducted two experiments in a priming task of semantic categorization (PTSC), in which length (one- or two-character words), relation, prime (related or unrelated prime-target pairs), and SOA (47, 87, or 187 ms) were manipulated. The prime was similar to the target in meaning or in visual configuration in Experiment A and in meaning or in pronunciation in Experiment B. The results indicate that the two-character words were similar to the one-character words but were less demanding of cognitive resources than the one-character words in the processing of phonological, visual-orthographic, and semantic information. The phonological primes had a facilitating effect at the SOA of 47 ms but an inhibitory effect at the SOA of 187 ms on the participants' reaction times; the visual-orthographic primes only had an inhibitory influence on the participants' reaction times at the SOA of 187 ms. The visual configuration of a Chinese word of one or two Chinese characters has its own contribution in helping retrieve the word's meanings; similarly, the phonological configuration of a one- or two-character word plays its own role in triggering activations of the word's semantic representations.
Highlights
Most words that are orthographically similar are similar to each other in pronunciation in an alphabetic language; it seems difficult to separate the processing of phonological from that of orthographic information in written word recognition
At the SOA of 87 ms, the reaction times were significantly shorter for the targets preceded by the semantic primes (679 ± 81 ms) than by the controls (705 ± 66 ms), t(17) = 2.499, p = 0.023, but were not significantly different for the targets preceded by the visual-orthographic primes (706 ± 72 ms) and the controls (697 ± 68 ms)
At the SOA of 187 ms, the reaction times were significantly shorter for the targets preceded by the semantic primes (671 ± 67 ms) than by the controls (702 ± 64 ms), t(17) = 3.301, p = 0.005, but were significantly longer for the targets preceded by the visual-orthographic primes (716 ± 80 ms) than by the controls (691 ± 55 ms), t(17) = 2.240, p = 0.040
Summary
Most words that are orthographically similar are similar to each other in pronunciation in an alphabetic language; it seems difficult to separate the processing of phonological from that of orthographic information in written word recognition. Written Chinese is of a logographic script. The orthographic units at the stroke, radical, and character levels and their combinations make Chinese visual orthography different from other languages A study of Chinese words appears helpful to reveal how the processing of phonological and visualorthographic information contributes in initiating activations of representations for semantic information. We provide a new piece of evidence in this line of research in the present study.
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