Japanese Katakana Research Articles

The dictation test of a Japanese student's katakana word

The dictation test of a Japanese student's katakana word

The locus of Katakana–English masked phonological priming effects

Japanese–English bilinguals completed a masked phonological priming study with Japanese Katakana primes and English targets. Event related potential (ERP) data were collected in addition to lexical decision responses. A cross-script phonological priming effect was observed in both measures, and the effect did not interact with frequency. In the ERP data, the phonological priming effect was evident before the frequency effect. These data, along with analyses of response latency distributions, provide evidence that the cross-script phonological priming effects were the consequence of the activation of sublexical phonological representations in a store shared by both Japanese and English. This activation fed back to sublexical and lexical orthographic representations, influencing lexical decision latencies. The implications for the Bilingual Interactive Activation (BIA+) model of word recognition are discussed.

Turning visual shapes into sounds: Early stages of reading acquisition revealed in the ventral occipitotemporal cortex

The exact role of the left ventral occipitotemporal cortex (VOTC) during the initial stages of reading acquisition is a hotly debated issue, especially regarding the comparative effect of learning on early stimulus-dependent vs. later task-dependent processes. We show that this controversy can be solved with high-temporal resolution intracerebral EEG recordings of the VOTC. We measured High-Frequency Activity (50–150Hz) as a proxy of population-level spiking activity while participants learned Japanese Katakana symbols, and found that learning primarily affects top-down/task-dependent neural processing, after a few minutes only. In contrast, adaptation of early bottom-up/stimulus-dependent processing takes several days to adapt and provides the basis for fluent reading. Such evidence that two consecutive stages of neural processing, stimulus- and task-dependent are differentially affected by learning, can reconcile seemingly opposite hypotheses on the role of the VOTC during reading acquisition.

Japanese Interest in "Hotaru" (Fireflies) and "Kabuto-Mushi" (Japanese Rhinoceros Beetles) Corresponds with Seasonality in Visible Abundance.

Seasonal changes in the popularity of fireflies [usually Genji-fireflies (Luciola cruciata Motschulsky) in Japan] and Japanese rhinoceros beetles [Allomyrina dichotoma (Linne)] were investigated to examine whether contemporary Japanese are interested in visible emergence of these insects as seasonal events. The popularity of fireflies and Japanese rhinoceros beetles was assessed by the Google search volume of their Japanese names, “Hotaru” and “Kabuto-mushi” in Japanese Katakana script using Google Trends. The search volume index for fireflies and Japanese rhinoceros beetles was distributed across seasons with a clear peak in only particular times of each year from 2004 to 2011. In addition, the seasonal peak of popularity for fireflies occurred at the beginning of June, whereas that for Japanese rhinoceros beetles occurred from the middle of July to the beginning of August. Thus seasonal peak of each species coincided with the peak period of the emergence of each adult stage. These findings indicated that the Japanese are interested in these insects primarily during the time when the two species are most visibly abundant. Although untested, this could suggest that fireflies and Japanese rhinoceros beetles are perceived by the general public as indicators or symbols of summer in Japan.

Lexical competition in a non-Roman, syllabic script: An inhibitory neighbour priming effect in Japanese Katakana

Previous masked priming studies have reported that lexical decision latencies are slower when a word target is primed by a higher-frequency neighbour (e.g., blue-BLUR) than when it is primed by an unrelated word of equivalent frequency (e.g., care-BLUR). These results suggest that lexical competition plays an important role in visual word identification in Indo-European languages such as English, French, and Dutch, consistent with activation-based accounts of lexical processing. The present research, using Japanese Katakana script, a syllabic script, demonstrates that lexical decision latencies were slower when targets were primed by word neighbour primes but not when targets were primed by nonword neighbour primes. Both results have clear parallels with previous research using Indo-European languages and therefore suggest that lexical competition is also an important component of word recognition processes in languages that do not employ the Roman alphabet.

Orthographic and phonological neighborhood size effects for Japanese Katakana words in a lexical decision task

In the present study, we examined the effects of orthographic and phonological neighborhood sizes for Japanese Katakana words using a lexical decision task. Kawakami (2002) reported an inhibitory orthographic neighborhood size effect along with a null phonological neighborhood size effect in his lexical decision tasks. In contrast, Grainger, Muneaux, Farioli, and Ziegler (2005) reported an interaction between orthographic and phonological neighborhood sizes in a lexical decision task. Therefore, we re-examined the effects of orthographic and phonological neighborhood sizes for low-frequency Katakana words in a lexical decision task. Consistent with Grainger et al., we found the interaction between orthographic and phonological neighborhood sizes, indicating that lexical decision performance for Katakana words is modulated by the nature of orthographic-phonological relationships.

Development of Tactile Katakana Delivery Device and Investigation on Characteristics of Katakana Recognition by Active Touch

Braille is one of the few writing systems that use tactile perception. The system is widely used by the blind to read and write. However, Braille is difficult to learn for persons with acquired blindness, especially for the elderly. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to design a tactile Japanese Katakana presentation device for the investigation of characteristics of tactile Katakana recognition. The device consists of a disk for tactile Katakana patterns, a force sensor unit for force measurement when subjects' fingers touch the tactile patterns, and an ultrasonic motor for tactile patterns presentation. Using the ultrasonic motor, the device presents characters to subjects quickly and automatically. Furthermore, the device has a big advantage that subjects are only required to move their fingers up and down, without any big submovements. An experiment was conducted using the device to test tactile recognition of 46 Katakana characters in native Japanese speakers with normal vision. Ten healthy right-handed male volunteers consented to participate in this experiment. Successful tactile Katakana recognition was higher than 78% (±14.4%) for these young subjects.

From one Religion, the Other1

Takamoɭi, an extraordinary aboriginal scholar, has played an unusual role during the transition of Nanwang Puyuma religion from traditional shamanism to contemporary forms. Taking advantage of a childhood education in Japanese, and perhaps inspired by observing Japanese scholars’ interest in aboriginal traditions, Takamoɭi set about transcribing Puyuma rituals in the Japanese katakana syllabary. After his conversion to Catholicism, Takamoɭi incorporated the traditional sacred vocabulary in tr...

The relatedness-of-meaning effect for ambiguous words in lexical-decision tasks: When does relatedness matter?

Effects of the number of meanings (NOM) and the relatedness of those meanings (ROM) were examined for Japanese Katakana words using a lexical-decision task. In Experiment 1, only a NOM advantage was observed. In Experiment 2, the same Katakana words produced a ROM advantage when Kanji words and nonwords were added. Because the Kanji nonwords consisted of unrelated characters whereas the Kanji words consisted of related characters, participants may have used the relatedness of activated meanings as a cue in making lexical decisions in this experiment, artificially creating a ROM advantage for Katakana words. Consistent with this explanation, no ROM effect for Katakana words was observed in Experiment 3 when the Kanji nonwords consisted of characters with similar (i.e., related) meanings. These results pose a further challenge to the position that the speed of semantic coding is modulated by ROM for ambiguous words.

Masked immediate-repetition-priming effect on the early lexical process in the bilateral anterior temporal areas assessed by neuromagnetic responses

A masked priming paradigm has been used to measure unconscious and automatic context effects on the processing of words. However, its spatiotemporal neural basis has not yet been clarified. To test the hypothesis that masked repetition priming causes enhancement of neural activation, we conducted a magnetoencephalography experiment in which a prime was visually presented for a short duration (50 ms), preceded by a mask pattern, and followed by a target word that was represented by a Japanese katakana syllabogram. The prime, which was identical to the target, was represented by another hiragana syllabogram in the “Repeated” condition, whereas it was a string of unreadable pseudocharacters in the “Unrepeated” condition. Subjects executed a categorical decision task on the target. Activation was significantly larger for the Repeated condition than for the Unrepeated condition at a time window of 150–250 ms in the right occipital area, 200–250 ms in the bilateral ventral occipitotemporal areas, and 200–250 ms and 200–300 ms in the left and right anterior temporal areas, respectively. These areas have been reported to be related to processing of visual-form/orthography and lexico-semantics, and the enhanced activation supports the hypothesis. However, the absence of the priming effect in the areas related to phonological processing implies that automatic phonological priming effect depends on task requirements.

単純接触がカテゴリ評価に与える効果──IATとGNATを用いて──

Based on mere exposure studies, we proposed that repeated exposure to stimuli belonging to a common category leads to a positive evaluation of that category. Furthermore, to investigate the implicit effects of mere exposure, indirect measures were used. In a series of experiments, participants were repeatedly exposed to mimetic words written in Japanese hiragana or katakana, or nothing (control). Then their evaluations of the category ("hiragana" or "katakana") were measured using indirect and direct measures. In Experiment 1 (Implicit Association Test; IAT), we adopted a traditional design using an exposure paradigm, such that the rating stimuli were identical to the exposed stimuli. Significant effects were observed for both measures. In Experiment 2 (IAT) and Experiment 3 (Go/No-go Association Task; GNAT), we used non-exposed stimuli that belonged to a common category as the rating stimuli. Significant effects were observed only for indirect measures. These results indicate that repeated exposure has unconscious positive effects on category evaluation. Theoretical and methodological implications of the findings are discussed.

Erroneous selection of a non-target item improves subsequent target identification in rapid serial visual presentations

The second of two targets (T2) embedded in a rapid serial visual presentation (RSVSVP) is often missed even though the first (T1) is correctly reported (attentional blink). The rate of correct T2 identification is quite high, however, when T2 comes immediately after T1 (lag-1 sparing). This study investigated whether and how non-target items induce lag-1 sparing. One T1 and two T2s comprising letters were inserted in distractors comprising symbols in each of two synchronised RSVSVPs. A digit (dummy) was presented with T1 in another stream. Lag-1 sparing occurred even at the location where the dummy was present (Experiment 1). This distractor-induced sparing effect was also obtained even when a Japanese katakana character (Experiment 2) was used as the dummy. The sparing effect was, however, severely weakened when symbols (Experiment 3) and Hebrew letters (Experiment 4) served as the dummy. Our findings suggest a tentative hypothesis that attentional set for item nameability is meta-categorically created and adopted to the dummy only when the dummy is nameable.

Do words in the native language influence second‐language speech perception? Evidence from Japanese listeners’ perception of English words that exist as Japanese loanwords.

It is well known that native‐language (L1) sound structure influences adult learners’ perception of second‐language (L2) speech. However, it is not as clear whether L2 speech perception can also be influenced by L1 mental lexicon. Specifically, L2 words may be inaccurately perceived if familiar loanword counterparts exist in L1 and if these loanwords have different sound patterns from the original words. To examine this, the present study took advantage of Japanese loanwords from English (e.g., Japanese /sutoresu/ from English “stress”), which typically undergo syllable structure changes, and investigated whether Japanese listeners can accurately perceive the syllable structure of English words even when loanwords exist in Japanese. Thirty native Japanese listeners were asked to count syllables in 189 English words spoken by a native English talker, and rate their subjective familiarity with the English words and their loanword counterparts transcribed in Japanese katakana orthography. Results indicated that syllable‐counting accuracy (65% on average) was not influenced by familiarity with the English words nor with the Japanese loanwords. Results suggest that even though loanwords resemble the original words in their sound and meaning, knowledge of such words in L1 does not necessarily influence perceptual processing of L2 words. [Work supported by MEXT and JSPS.]

外国人患者への英語による医薬品情報提供のための服薬指導支援システムの開発

Using Microsoft Access 2000, we developed a pharmaceutical management and counseling support system that enables us to produce explanatory leaflets on medicines. However, a growing number of foreigners have been admitted to our hospital recently and most of them cannot read Chinese characters, though they can read the Japanese katakana and hiragana scripts, so they could not use our leaflets. To solve this problem, we improved the software so that the system would produce leaflets in English for them. We translated various items in leaflets into English such as the effects of medicines, initial symptoms of severe adverse events and changes in colors of stools and urine. We also asked eleven foreign patients to complete a questionnaire regarding the usefulness of the new explanatory leaflets, and they all thought the leaflets were useful.At present, no similar software is available on the market and even if such software were available, it would be very expensive. Since we feel that our software is very useful, we have made it freely available at no cost.

Microstate analysis of information processing in a reading task with Kanji and Katakana

The present study investigated the differences in time course and the brain electric signature during the reading process of two types of Japanese characters, Kanji (morphograms) and Katakana (syllabograms). We studied 18 right-handed Japanese females, healthy, informed volunteers. Subjects observed a sequence of Kanji and Katakana words, both consisting of two syllables for 50 ms in either the left visual field (LVF) or the right visual field (RVF) at intervals of 2000 ms, while 39-channel-EEG were recorded. Four average ERP map series were separately averaged using letter criterion and stimulus conditions for each subject. The ERPs from all conditions and subjects were averaged and segmented into microstates, which were quasi-stable landscapes of potential distribution maps. The microstate topographies were assessed numerically by the electric gravity center, a conservative estimate of the mean location of all intracerebral, active, electric sources. To assess the differences of the electric gravity center between Kanji and Katakana, the mean vector was compared between two conditions using a paired t-test. Significantly, different microstates were found between Kanji and Katakana. In the RVF presentation, Kanji were more right lateralized than Katakana at 178–262 ms, and in the LVF presentation, Kanji were also more right lateralized than Katakana at 214–338 ms. These temporal and spatial aspects suggest that the differences between Kanji and Katakana reading already appear at early information processing stages, and this difference was independent of the input hemisphere.

Procedural memory in schizophrenia assessed using a mirror reading task

The preservation of procedural memory in individuals with schizophrenia has been confirmed by methods such as the Tower of Hanoi, pursuit rotor and mirror reading tests. However, the cognitive procedural memory of Japanese subjects with schizophrenia has never been assessed using mirror reading. To better determine the characteristics of cognitive procedural memory in schizophrenia, a Japanese version of the mirror reading task, consisting of cards with words written in Japanese katakana characters in mirror image, was administered to 18 Japanese patients with schizophrenia and 21 normal controls. The results indicated that the patients indeed learned the skill despite exhibiting lower overall performances in reading time than the controls, their scores displaying correlation with the severity of schizophrenic negative symptoms. This suggests that procedural memory for this task is retained in individuals with schizophrenia. It is important for them to use their preserved procedural memory for efficient rehabilitative efforts.

Effects of kana-level neighbors and phoneme-level neighbors on lexical decision of Japanese katakana words

This study examined the effect of neighborhood size on the recognition of Japanese katakana words. Neighbors of a given katakana word were defined in two ways; kana-level neighbor is a katakana word that can be constructed by changing one letter of the target word preserving the other letter positions, and phoneme-level neighbor is a katakana word that can be created by changing one phoneme (consonant or vowel) preserving the other phoneme positions of the target. In Experiment 1, 30 university students participated in a lexical decision task and numbers of kana-level neighbor were manipulated. The result showed that the number of kana-level neighbor had an inhibitory effect on lexical decision of low familiarity katakana words. In Experiment 2, 30 university students participated in a lexical decision task and numbers of phoneme-level neighbor were manipulated. The result showed that the number of phoneme-level neighbor had no effect on lexical decision of katakana words. These results suggest that neighbors affect each other on their orthographic representation in the recognition of low familiarity Japanese katakana words.

On the studies of Byzantine history in Japan : with regard to the transliteration from Greek pronunciation in Byzantine times to Japanese katakana

On the studies of Byzantine history in Japan : with regard to the transliteration from Greek pronunciation in Byzantine times to Japanese katakana

Functional magnetic resonance imaging of neural activity related to orthographic, phonological, and lexico-semantic judgments of visually presented characters and words.

Functional magnetic resonance imaging was used to investigate neural activity during the judgment of visual stimuli in two groups of experiments using seven and five normal subjects. The subjects were given tasks designed differentially to involve orthographic (more generally, visual form), phonological, and lexico-semantic processes. These tasks included the judgments of whether a line was horizontal, whether a pseudocharacter or pseudocharacter string included a horizontal line, whether a Japanese katakana (phonogram) character or character string included a certain vowel, or whether a character string was meaningful (noun or verb) or meaningless. Neural activity related to the visual form process was commonly observed during judgments of both single real-characters and single pseudocharacters in lateral extrastriate visual cortex, the posterior ventral or medial occipito-temporal area, and the posterior inferior temporal area of both hemispheres. In contrast, left-lateralized activation was observed in the latter two areas during judgments of real- and pseudo-character strings. These results show that there is no katakana "word form center" whose activity is specific to real words. Activation related to the phonological process was observed, in Broca's area, the insula, the supramarginal gyrus, and the posterior superior temporal area, with greater activation in the left hemisphere. These activation foci for visual form and phonological processes of katakana also were reported for the English alphabet in previous studies. The present activation showed no additional areas for contrasts of noun judgment with other conditions and was similar between noun and verb judgment tasks, suggesting two possibilities: no strong semantic activation was produced, or the semantic process shared activation foci with the phonological process.

Functional magnetic resonance imaging of neural activity related to orthographic, phonological, and lexico-semantic judgments of visually presented characters and words

Functional magnetic resonance imaging was used to investigate neural activity during the judgment of visual stimuli in two groups of experiments using seven and five normal subjects. The subjects were given tasks designed differentially to involve orthographic (more generally, visual form), phonological, and lexico-semantic processes. These tasks included the judgments of whether a line was horizontal, whether a pseudocharacter or pseudocharacter string included a horizontal line, whether a Japanese katakana (phonogram) character or character string included a certain vowel, or whether a character string was meaningful (noun or verb) or meaningless. Neural activity related to the visual form process was commonly observed during judgments of both single real-characters and single pseudocharacters in lateral extrastriate visual cortex, the posterior ventral or medial occipito-temporal area, and the posterior inferior temporal area of both hemispheres. In contrast, left-lateralized activation was observed in the latter two areas during judgments of real- and pseudo-character strings. These results show that there is no katakana "word form center" whose activity is specific to real words. Activation related to the phonological process was observed, in Broca's area, the insula, the supramarginal gyrus, and the posterior superior temporal area, with greater activation in the left hemisphere. These activation foci for visual form and phonological processes of katakana also were reported for the English alphabet in previous studies. The present activation showed no additional areas for contrasts of noun judgment with other conditions and was similar between noun and verb judgment tasks, suggesting two possibilities: no strong semantic activation was produced, or the semantic process shared activation foci with the phonological process.