Kanji Words Research Articles

Japanese children’s understanding of notational systems

This study examined Japanese children’s understanding of two Japanese notational systems: hiragana and kanji. In three experiments, 126 3- to 6-year-olds were asked to name words written in hiragana or kanji as they appeared with different pictures. Consistent with Bialystok (Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 2000, Vol. 76, pp. 173–189), 3- and 4-year-olds’ identification of written words varied according to the picture with which they appeared, and older children named the words with different pictures more accurately. The 4-year-olds who could read words written in hiragana but could not read words written in kanji named both hiragana words and kanji words with different pictures more accurately than those who could not read hiragana and kanji words. The interrelationship between the symbol–sound relationships and the symbol–referent relationships of notational systems is discussed.

The role of orthography in the semantic activation of neighbors.

There is now considerable evidence that a letter string can activate semantic information appropriate to its orthographic neighbors (e.g., Forster & Hector's, 2002, TURPLE effect). This phenomenon is the focus of the present research. Using Japanese words, we examined whether semantic activation of neighbors is driven directly by orthographic similarity alone or whether there is also a role for phonological similarity. In Experiment 1, using a relatedness judgment task in which a Kanji word-Katakana word pair was presented on each trial, an inhibitory effect was observed when the initial Kanji word was related to an orthographic and phonological neighbor of the Katakana word target but not when the initial Kanji word was related to a phonological but not orthographic neighbor of the Katakana word target. This result suggests that phonology plays little, if any, role in the activation of neighbors' semantics when reading familiar words. In Experiment 2, the targets were transcribed into Hiragana, a script they are typically not written in, requiring readers to engage in phonological coding. In that experiment, inhibitory effects were observed in both conditions. This result indicates that phonologically mediated semantic activation of neighbors will emerge when phonological processing is necessary in order to understand a written word (e.g., when that word is transcribed into an unfamiliar script).

Recovery Process and Prognosis of Aphasic Patients with Left Putaminal Hemorrhage: Relationship Between Hematoma Type and Language Modalities

To elucidate the precise recovery process and prognosis of language functions in aphasic patients with left putaminal hemorrhage, we investigated 48 aphasic patients classified into 4 groups according to the location and extent of hematoma. The hematoma extended to the corona radiata in all patients, extracapsular in type I (12 cases), to the anterior limb in type II (10 cases), to the posterior limb in type III (12 cases), and to both limbs in type IV (14 cases). The Standard Language Test for Aphasia was performed at 1 month, 3 months, and 6 months after the attack. The type II, III, and IV patients were divided into 2 groups, with and without ventricular rupture of the hemorrhage. At 3 and 6 months after the attack, the type I, II, and III patients showed significant improvement (P < .05) in all language modalities compared with the type IV patients. Most improvement in language modalities occurred in the first 3 months. The evaluation of patients with ventricular rupture after 6 months revealed poor recovery (P < .05) in oral commands, visual commands, confrontation naming, sentence repetition, narratives, verbal fluency, and writing in type II and III patients. In type IV patients, this evaluation showed poor recovery (P < .05) only in oral and written naming (kanji words). No significant difference in prognostic outcome was observed between the surgical treatment group and the nonsurgical treatment group. The classification of hemorrhage may be useful in predicting the outcome of aphasia with putaminal hemorrhage and in guiding clinicians in providing effective instructions to patients and their relatives.

Activation in left primary visual cortex representing parafoveal visual field during reading Japanese texts

Activation in the left primary visual cortex (V1) representing the parafoveal field during text reading has been interpreted as attentional modulation in the process of deciding saccadic target for reading ahead. Kanji words serve the main cue to decide the goal of saccades in Japanese. We aimed to determine the exact location of this modulation in the V1 and to determine whether the area of the modulation changes according to the location where the next Kanji word appears or it is fixed on a certain region in V1. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we determined the area in V1 representing each eccentricity on the horizontal meridian of the visual field for each participant. Then we investigated brain activation while they were reading two sets of Japanese texts that scrolled leftward as the participants. In set 1, the distance between the heads of adjacent Kanji words was about 3°. In set 2, the distance was about 5°. From the results of these experiments, we obtained activation amplitude of the area corresponding to each eccentricity. We recorded eye movements simultaneously with the acquisition of fMRI data. The maximum peak of the activation was found in the region representing about 4.5° of eccentricity on the horizontal meridian in the left V1 for each participant. The activation pattern did not essentially differ between the two text conditions, although the location of the saccades made for reading next section of the text corresponds to the head of the next Kanji word. The activation modulation during reading Japanese texts occurs in the parafoveal V1 of the left hemisphere. The attentional modulation did not change with the distance to the next goal of saccade but was fixed on the area representing about 4.5° of eccentricity.

The nature of orthographic–phonological and orthographic–semantic relationships for Japanese kana and kanji words

It is generally assumed that orthographic-phonological (O-P) consistencies are higher for Japanese kana words than for kanji words and that orthographic-semantic (O-S) consistencies are higher for kanji words than for kana words. In order to examine the validity of these assumptions, we attempted to measure the O-P and O-S consistencies for 339 kana words and 775 kanji words. Orthographic neighbors were first generated for each of these words. In order to measure the O-P consistencies of the words, their neighbors were then classified as phonological friends or enemies, based on whether the characters shared with the original word were pronounced the same in the two words. In order to measure the O-S consistencies, the similarity in meaning of each of the neighbors to the original word was rated on a 7-point scale. Based on the ratings, the neighbors were classified as semantic friends or enemies. The results indicated that both the O-P consistencies for kanji words and the O-S consistencies for kana words were greater than previously assumed and that the two scripts were actually quite similar on both types of consistency measures. The implications for the nature of the reading processes for kana and kanji words are discussed.

Neural substrates for writing impairments in Japanese patients with mild Alzheimer's disease: A SPECT study

Language is fairly well preserved in most patients with mild Alzheimer's disease, but writing ability seems to be impaired even in the early stages of the disease. To investigate the neural bases of writing impairments in Alzheimer's disease (AD), we examined the correlation between writing ability and regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) in 52 Japanese patients with mild AD compared to 22 controls, using single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT). We found that, compared with control subjects, Kana writing to dictation and copying Kanji words were preserved in AD patients, but writing to dictating Kanji words was impaired. We classified the errors in the Kanji dictation task into four types to investigate the correlation between rCBF and the error type, as follows: non-response errors, phonologically plausible errors, non-phonologically plausible errors, and peripheral errors. Non-response errors, which indicated difficulty with retrieving Kanji graphic images, were the most frequent. When controlled for confounding factors, the number of non-response errors negatively correlated with rCBF in the left inferior parietal lobule, the posterior middle and inferior temporal gyri, and the posterior middle frontal gyrus. Thus, the impaired recall of Kanji in early Alzheimer's disease is related to dysfunctional cortical activity, which appears to be predominant in the left frontal, parietal, and temporal regions.

Homophonic priming effect of Japanese kanji words

Homophonic priming effect of Japanese kanji words

ひらがな文の読み障害をともなうLD児における漢字単語の読みの特徴

ひらがな文の読み障害をともなうLD児における漢字単語の読みの特徴

Error Analysis of Writing to Dictation of Kanji Words in Japanese Children with Developmental Dyslexia and Normally Developed Children

典型発達児と発達性読み書き障害 (DD) 児における漢字書字の特徴の相違を明らかにするため, 「小学生の読み書きスクリーニング検査 (STRAW) 」を用いて, 通常学級在籍の典型発達児708名とDD児21名の漢字単語書取の反応を比較, 検討した. DD児21名全員に音韻情報処理過程と視覚情報処理過程双方の障害を認めた. 漢字書字においてDD群は典型発達群に比べ無反応が多く, また形態的に似ていない非実在文字を書く傾向があった. さらに漢字の構成要素間の間隔が広いという特徴や, 文字が傾く特徴が認められた. DD群の漢字書字には視覚的な情報処理機能の低下が影響している可能性が示唆された. 典型発達群では正答率と音声提示による親密度との間に有意に高い相関を認めた一方, DD群では正答率と音声提示による単語心像性および画数との間に有意に高い相関を認めた. これらの知見は, DD児の漢字書字指導において考慮されるべきであると考えられた.

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.

Neural activity changes by language learning: An MEG study

Event Abstract Back to Event Neural activity changes by language learning: An MEG study Qiang Wei1*, Aya Ihara1, Norio FujiMaki1, Tomoe Hayakawa2 and Tsutomu Murata1 1 National Institute of Information and Communications Technology, Japan 2 Teikyo University, Japan To investigate neural activity changes by language learning, we performed a priming experiment for native speakers of Japanese (n=10) and those of Chinese who were learning Japanese as a second language [high level learners (n=10), low level learners (n=14)]. All targets were kanji words that were used in both of Japanese and Chinese languages. The primes were kanji words which were phonologically the same (SAME) as or different (DIFF) from the targets in Japanese, but not in Chinese, or nonwords which were written in pseudo-characters (PSEUD). We recorded brain responses during silent reading of word pairs by using a 148-channel whole-head magnetoencephalography (MEG) system. Native speakers and high level learners showed that neural activities became weaker for the SAME conditions than for the other conditions by the phonological repetition in the left posterior superior temporal and inferior parietal area (pST/IP) at the time window of 400-600 ms, at 450-500 ms in the right pST/IP for native speakers. On the other hand, low level learners showed the phonological repetition effect only in the right pST/IP at 500-600 ms. In all subject groups, the activity were larger for the DIFF condition than for the SAME in the left and right anterior temporal areas (aT) at 350-400 ms, and was larger for the SAME condition than for the DIFF in the left inferior frontal cortex (LIFC) at 450-500 ms. In addition, the difference in the LIFC activity between the SAME and DIFF conditions was larger for native speakers than for high and low level learners. Our previously report suggested that the aT and LIFC play important roles for semantic processing [1]. The present findings suggest that brain activation patterns in the pST/IP were varied by language proficiency, and that activities in LIFC indicate subtle foreign language learning effects on semantic processing via phonological mediation.

Recognition and reading aloud of kana and kanji word: An fMRI study

It has been proposed that different brain regions are recruited for processing two Japanese writing systems, namely, kanji (morphograms) and kana (syllabograms). However, this difference may depend upon what type of word was used and also on what type of task was performed. Using fMRI, we investigated brain activation for processing kanji and kana words with similar high familiarity in two tasks: word recognition and reading aloud. During both tasks, words and non-words were presented side by side, and the subjects were required to press a button corresponding to the real word in the word recognition task and were required to read aloud the real word in the reading aloud task. Brain activations were similar between kanji and kana during reading aloud task, whereas during word recognition task in which accurate identification and selection were required, kanji relative to kana activated regions of bilateral frontal, parietal and occipitotemporal cortices, all of which were related mainly to visual word-form analysis and visuospatial attention. Concerning the difference of brain activity between two tasks, differential activation was found only in the regions associated with task-specific sensorimotor processing for kana, whereas visuospatial attention network also showed greater activation during word recognition task than during reading aloud task for kanji. We conclude that the differences in brain activation between kanji and kana depend on the interaction between the script characteristics and the task demands.

Left-lateralized N170 Effects of Visual Expertise in Reading: Evidence from Japanese Syllabic and Logographic Scripts

The N170 component of the event-related potential (ERP) reflects experience-dependent neural changes in several forms of visual expertise, including expertise for visual words. Readers skilled in writing systems that link characters to phonemes (i.e., alphabetic writing) typically produce a left-lateralized N170 to visual word forms. This study examined the N170 in three Japanese scripts that link characters to larger phonological units. Participants were monolingual English speakers (EL1) and native Japanese speakers (JL1) who were also proficient in English. ERPs were collected using a 129-channel array, as participants performed a series of experiments viewing words or novel control stimuli in a repetition detection task. The N170 was strongly left-lateralized for all three Japanese scripts (including logographic Kanji characters) in JL1 participants, but bilateral in EL1 participants viewing these same stimuli. This demonstrates that left-lateralization of the N170 is dependent on specific reading expertise and is not limited to alphabetic scripts. Additional contrasts within the moraic Katakana script revealed equivalent N170 responses in JL1 speakers for familiar Katakana words and for Kanji words transcribed into novel Katakana words, suggesting that the N170 expertise effect is driven by script familiarity rather than familiarity with particular visual word forms. Finally, for English words and novel symbol string stimuli, both EL1 and JL1 subjects produced equivalent responses for the novel symbols, and more left-lateralized N170 responses for the English words, indicating that such effects are not limited to the first language. Taken together, these cross-linguistic results suggest that similar neural processes underlie visual expertise for print in very different writing systems.

Relationship between reading/writing skills and cognitive abilities among Japanese primary-school children: normal readers versus poor readers (dyslexics)

Four hundred and ninety-five Japanese primary-school children aged from 8 (Grade-2) to 12 (Grade-6) were tested for their abilities to read/write in Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji, for their size of vocabulary and for other cognitive abilities including arithmetic, visuo-spatial and phonological processing. Percentages of the children whose reading/writing scores fell below the −1.5SD cut-off differ according to the scripts—Hiragana: 0.2% for reading and 1.6% for writing, Katakana: 1.4% and 3.8%, and Kanji: 6.9% and 6%, respectively. Further, for the normal children, the older the age, the better they performed on cognitive tasks, while the reading/writing disability (RWD) group (below −1.5SD) showed a weaker relationship between the age and the performance level. It was also revealed that for the normal children, the “vocabulary size” was the most potent predictor variable in accounting for Kanji word reading performance for all grades except Grade-6, for whom nonword reading/repetition were also significant predictor variables. In contrast, for Kanji word writing, generally other writing related variables were better predictor variables. The RWD group however showed different patterns of results. Thus the data from the normal and RWD children in the current cohort were discussed in terms of the current theories of reading, and developmental dyslexia.

Alternative psychosis and dysgraphia accompanied by forced normalization in a girl with occipital lobe epilepsy

An 11-year-old girl who had been given antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) for occipital lobe epilepsy was hospitalized with alternative psychosis and dysgraphia accompanied by forced normalization of the EEG. Her epileptic seizures and psychosis disappeared after administration of carbamazepine. She developed dysgraphia for Kanji words (Japanese morphograms). The EEG showed sporadic spikes predominantly in the left occipital region, and [ 123I]iomazenil single-photon-emission computed tomography (IMZ-SPECT) imaging revealed an area of hypoperfusion in the left occipital lobe. Interestingly, the left posterior inferior temporal area is known to play an important role in writing Kanji words. It is assumed that abnormal discharges in the left occipital lobe were projected into the left posterior inferior temporal area and that a functional disorder in that area led to dysgraphia; however, further exploration is needed.

Phonological influences on lexicosemantic processing of kanji words

To investigate the phonological influences on the lexicosemantic process with a strong orthographic constraint, we used kanji (morphogram) homophone words and measured, using magnetoencephalography, the neural activities during the silent reading of prime-target pairs. The primes were phonologically the same as or different from the targets or pseudocharacters. The neural activities in the left posterior temporal and inferior parietal areas became weaker with phonological repetition. Furthermore, stronger activities for the different condition in the left anterior temporal area and for the same condition in the left inferior frontal cortex, respectively, suggest the roles of these areas of the brain in the semantic processing of words and in the selection of appropriate meanings. We conclude that phonological information affects the lexicosemantic process even with a strong orthographic constraint.

The Homophone Effect in Semantic access Tasks using Kanji Words: Its Relation to the Articulatory Suppression Effect

The present study examined whether articulatory suppression influences homophone effects in semantic access tasks using Japanese kanji words. In Experiment 1, participants were required to decide whether visually presented word pairs were synonyms. This experiment replicated the homophone effect observed in previous research that showed more false positive errors in response to nonsynonym homophone pairs than to controls. The present study found that this homophone effect was also obtained under an articulatory suppression condition. In Experiment 2, participants performed a semantic decision task, in which they had to judge whether a visually presented target word was an exemplar of a definition that was shown immediately before presentation of the target word. The homophone effect observed in previous studies was replicated--that is, longer response times and more false positive errors were associated with homophones of correct exemplars than with nonhomophone control words. This homophone effect was also obtained under an articulatory suppression conditions. These results suggest that the phonological processing that produces the homophone effects in semantic access tasks using Japanese kanji words does not include articulatory mechanisms.

Japanese Language Students' Perceptions on Kanji Learning and Their Relationship to Novel Kanji Word Learning Ability

This study examines the relationship between how learners of Japanese as a second language perceive the learning of kanji (i.e., the logographic characters shared with Chinese) and their ability to learn novel kanji words using morphological and contextual information. Eighty college students learning Japanese as a foreign language completed a 60‐item kanji questionnaire, a 75‐item kanji test, and a 30‐item reading comprehension test. Results indicated modest but statistically significant correlations between the belief variables and the kanji ability measures, with reading proficiency factored out. Regression analyses revealed that although reading proficiency accounted for a large portion of variance of the participants' performance on the kanji test, belief in the effectiveness of metacognitive strategies accounted for 14–16% of the variance of success in morphological analysis. The results suggest that (a) students' task‐specific beliefs have a significant impact on their achievement on a given task and that (b) metacognitive awareness significantly affects how a learner handles a challenging learning task.

Phonological and lexico-semantic processing during kanji word reading: An MEG study

Phonological and lexico-semantic processing during kanji word reading: An MEG study

How Do English L1 Learners of Advanced Japanese Infer Unknown Kanji Words in Authentic Texts?

This study investigates advanced Japanese language learners’ abilities to infer unknown kanji(Chinese character) words while reading authentic Japanese texts. Data obtained from 42 English L1 students indicate that, first, although they can guess the meanings of unknown kanji words in context, they frequently make erroneous guesses or fail to guess at all. Second, the more proficient students can use context better than the less proficient students. Third, when reading comprehension ability is controlled, there is no difference in kanji inferencing ability between heritage language (HL) learners and non‐HL learners. Fourth, when the students can pronounce the given semantically unknown kanji words fully or partially while reading, such phonological knowledge proved to be related to successful inferencing.