The Processing of Visual and Phonological Configurations of Chinese One- and Two-Character Words in a Priming Task of Semantic Categorization

Frontiers in Psychology

Xiaoyun eWang¹  Bosen eMa¹  Degao eLi¹ 

[1] Department of Linguistics, School of International Studies, Zhejiang University;

关键词: Semantic Categorization Task;    Semantic representations;    Chinese words;    Visual configuration;    phonological configuration;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01918

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

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, 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

【 授权许可】

Unknown