Bigram Frequency,Number of Syllables and Morphemes and Their Effects on Lexical Decision and Word Naming

There has been an increasing volume of evidence supporting the role of the syllable in word processing tasks. Recently it has also been shown that orthographic redundancy, related to the pattern of bigram frequencies, could not explain the syllable number effect on lexical decision times. This was demonstrated on a large sample of words taken from the British Lexicon Project. In this study we extend this research by examining both lexical decision and word naming times taken from the English Lexicon Project . There was a syllable number effect for both tasks in the expected direction, and this effect was independent of the presence of a bigram trough. The research also examined the role of other bigram related variables and the number of morphemes on lexical decision and word naming times. The number of morphemes had a significant effect on both word processing tasks, with words with more morphemes producing faster reaction times and also fewer errors. This pattern was reversed for nonword lexical decision times. The results are discussed in the light of recent developments in models of reading.     

Pseudohomophone Naming and the Word Frequency Effect

An experiment by McCann and Besner (1987) suggested that non-words that are homophonic with a high-frequency word (e.g. “keap”) are named in the same amount of time as non-words that are homophonic with a low-frequency word (e.g. “fome”), despite such pseudohomophones being faster to name than non-pseudohomophones (e.g. “feap”, “yome”). Such a result is a challenge to any model of lexical processing that places the word-frequency effect at the stage when the word is being selected from amongst all lexical entries. McCann and Besner propose a complex alternative account where frequency effects arise at a later stage of processing, a stage that is not involved in the naming of pseudohomophones. The purpose of the present study is to look for a frequency effect in the naming of pseudohomophones, controlling for orthographic factors that McCann and Besner ignored. The first experiment, using a homophone decision task, establishes a set of items that produce a clear frequency effect. These items are then used in a naming experiment which also reveals a clear frequency effect for those subjects who make use of a lexical route when pronouncing pseudohomophones. It is concluded from this that the complex model developed by McCann and Besner is unnecessary.     

文字加工中的正字法家族效应

正字法家族效应是指正字法邻近词越多, 家族越大, 单词识别越快的一种现象。一般使用词汇判断、语义分类任务、快速命名等实验范式研究。影响家族效应的因素有家族词的频率、材料的语言和家族在单词中的位置等。家族效应表现在150~300ms窗口中的早期成分和更大的N400上。家族效应可能与左大脑半球的不同脑区的的语义激活有关, 也可能与中背外侧前额的执行控制功能有关。家族效应的理论模型主要有：多重标准识别模型、交互激活模型和双通路瀑布式模型等。将来的研究可尝试从实验材料和研究方法等方面进行拓展。     

词边界信息在中文词汇学习与识别中的作用:眼动研究的证据

空格作为英语等大多数拼音文字阅读中的词边界信息,能帮助读者成功地从文本的一连串的字母中切分出词,促进了词汇的习得和识别。然而在中文里没有明确的词边界信息,那么提供词边界信息(即加入空格)能否促进中文词汇识别或帮助读者学习新词?本文将从空格对成人、儿童和留学生在阅读中眼动控制的影响来回顾和总结词边界信息在中文词汇识别与学习中的作用。在此基础上,提出对建立汉字与词汇识别模型、眼动控制模型以及对指导汉语教学工作的启示。     

图片命名中词汇频率效应的眼动研究

在延时命名范式的基础上,通过控制熟悉性并运用连续图片命名的眼动记录技术,考察图片的注视时间,将词汇提取的过程单独地呈现出来。实验结果表明,在控制熟悉性及延时命名的条件下,图片名称的频率仍影响着图片的注视时间,表现出频率效应,但对出声输出的快慢没有影响,从而进一步证实了图片命名频率效应的“词汇通达假设”。     

Lexical Retrieval Deficit in Picture Naming: Implications for Word Production Models

In models of word retrieval, it is common to differentiate lexical-semantic (word meaning) and lexical-phonological (word form) levels. There has been considerable interest in the relationship between these two levels. The so-called discrete two-stage model claims that phonological activation follows selection at the lexical-semantic level and is limited only to the selected item. In contrast, nondiscrete (interactive and cascade) models assume that all activated lexical-semantic candidates are also phonologically activated to some extent. We addressed this issue by studying an anomic patient who suffered from a partial functional disconnection between lexical-semantic and lexical-phonological levels. A multitarget repeated naming task with phonological training was employed. Systematic manipulation of semantic and phonological relatedness between the to-be-named items indicated that our patient's word error patterns were sensitive to both types of lexical relatedness. A delayed repetition task employing the same items failed to show similar effects, suggesting that they were specific to naming. The discrete two-stage model is unable to explain the observed effects of semantic and phonological relatedness. However, they are consistent with assumptions of nondiscrete models of lexical retrieval. In addition to the theoretical implications of this study, the observed effects of lexical context on word retrieval have implications for treatment of anomia.     

The Role of Orthographic Neighborhood Size Effects in Chinese Word Recognition

Previous studies about the orthographic neighborhood size (NS) in Chinese have overlooked the morphological processing, and the co-variation between the character frequency and the the NS. The present study manipulated the word frequency and the NS simultaneously, with the leading character frequency controlled, to explore their influences on word lexical decision (Experiment 1) and naming (Experiment 2). The results showed a robust effect that words with a larger NS produced shorter reaction time than those with a smaller NS, irrespective of the word frequency and the tasks. This facilitative effect may occur due to a semantic network formed by neighbor words, resulting in the semantic activation to accelerate the word recognition. Moreover, the comparison of the effect sizes of word frequency between the two tasks showed that lexical decision responses demonstrated a larger word frequency effect, indicating that the sub-word processing was involved in the multi-character word recognition.     

汉语听觉词汇加工中声调信息对语义激活的制约作用

进行了三个跨通道启动词汇判断实验,探讨汉语听觉词汇加工中声调信息对语义激活的制约作用。实验一和二使用具有相同音段信息、但不同声调信息的双音节合成词（如“条约”和“跳跃”）作为听觉启动词,与其中一个词有语义关系的双字词作为视觉探测词。语义启动词与其配对的声调不匹配词在第一音节的声调、第二音节的声调、或两个声调上有所不同。实验三改变语义启动词的第一或第二音节的声调,以产生声调不匹配的假词启动项;实验三还同时变化了原来的声调与产生的声调之间的相似性。实验结果表明,声调不匹配的启动项目是否产生显著的启动效应取决于词汇竞争的环境、声调输入与深层声调表征之间匹配的程度,以及不匹配的声调所在的位置。文章从语音输入中的声调信息如何激活词汇表征、声调信息如何存储在心理词典中、声调对语义激活的制约作用如何受竞争环境的影响这三个方面讨论了研究的发现。     

Effects of Grammatical Gender on Picture and Word Naming: Evidence from German

The present study investigated the effects of prior grammatical gender information (masculine, feminine, and neuter) provided by a minimal sentence context on both picture- and word-naming latencies. Named targets were nouns or pictures of concepts featuring unambiguous grammatical gender. Simple sentence fragments were presented auditorily prior to each picture or word target; the relation between these sentence primes and the word or picture target was either gender-congruent, gender-incongruent, or gender-neutral. Relative to the gender-neutral baseline, reliable facilitation and inhibition effects were both observed in the picture-naming task. By contrast, only inhibition effects were observed in the word-naming task. The results suggest that the processes of picture and word naming differ qualitatively when gender information is precued. The findings are discussed with respect to the distinction between postlexical and intralexical loci of the effects of gender context on word recognition and production.     

主观声旁家族对汉语儿童汉字命名的影响

研究选取三年级、五年级和七年级学生,采用两个汉字命名实验,考察主观声旁家族对汉字命名的影响。实验一操纵主观声旁家族大小,发现三年级儿童没有表现出家族效应;五年级儿童表现出边缘显著的家族抑制效应,即对大家族的字命名更慢;七年级儿童表现出显著的家族抑制效应。实验二操纵了目标字是否有高频家族成员字（higher frequency neighbors,HFNs）这个变量,发现儿童普遍都表现出HFNs抑制效应,即对有高频家族成员字的目标字命名更慢。以上结果表明随着年级增长,主观声旁家族对儿童命名的影响逐渐增强,且高年级儿童已表现出家族抑制效应,这一表现与普遍出现的HFNs抑制效应有关。     

主观声旁家族对汉语儿童汉字命名的影响

研究选取三年级、五年级和七年级学生,采用两个汉字命名实验,考察主观声旁家族对汉字命名的影响。实验一操纵主观声旁家族大小,发现三年级儿童没有表现出家族效应;五年级儿童表现出边缘显著的家族抑制效应,即对大家族的字命名更慢;七年级儿童表现出显著的家族抑制效应。实验二操纵了目标字是否有高频家族成员字（higher frequency neighbors,HFNs）这个变量,发现儿童普遍都表现出HFNs抑制效应,即对有高频家族成员字的目标字命名更慢。以上结果表明随着年级增长,主观声旁家族对儿童命名的影响逐渐增强,且高年级儿童已表现出家族抑制效应,这一表现与普遍出现的HFNs抑制效应有关。     

The Effect of the Balance of Orthographic Neighborhood Distribution in Visual Word Recognition

The present study investigated whether the balance of neighborhood distribution (i.e., the way orthographic neighbors are spread across letter positions) influences visual word recognition. Three word conditions were compared. Word neighbors were either concentrated on one letter position (e.g.,nasse/basse-lasse-tasse-masse) or were unequally spread across two letter positions (e.g.,pelle/celle-selle-telle-perle), or were equally spread across two letter positions (e.g.,litre/titre-vitre-libre-livre). Predictions based on the interactive activation model [McClelland & Rumelhart (1981). Psychological Review, 88, 375–401] were generated by running simulations and were confirmed in the lexical decision task. Data showed that words were more rapidly identified when they had spread neighbors rather than concentrated neighbors. Furthermore, within the set of spread neighbors, words were more rapidly recognized when they had equally rather than unequally spread neighbors. The findings are explained in terms of activation and inhibition processes in the interactive activation framework.     

Identifying the Basis for the Word Frequency Effect in Recognition Memory

Abstract

Recent theories of recognition memory have identified two bases on which recognition-memory judgments may be made: recollection, which involves retrieval of contextual information from an earlier episode of stimulus presentation; and familiarity, which is distinguished by a general sense of familiarity in the absence of recollection. Four experiments were conducted to test whether the word frequency effect (WFE) in recognition memory (superior performance with low- in comparison with high-frequency targets) results from recollection-based processes, familiarity-based processes, or both. In two of the experiments, superior memory for aspects of the study context was found for low-frequency in comparison with high-frequency words, suggesting frequency-related differences in recollection. The other two experiments used Jacoby's (1991) inclusion/exclusion paradigm to provide estimates of the contribution of recollection and familiarity to recognition. In both experiments the data suggested that the WFE is primarily a recollection-based phenomenon. These findings suggest that the recognition memory WFE for old items results primarily from the effects of word frequency on recollection. The implications of these findings for theories of recognition memory are discussed.     

字形判断过程中的整体与局部优先效应:来自反应时和眼动指标的证据

本文采用4(字形)x2(字号)的组内设计,对各条件的反应时、首次注视和总注视时间进行分析,从而探讨汉字识别整体或局部优先的问题。无论字号大小,部件位置错误条件的反应时均显著短于部件内容错误。小号字在部件位置和内容错误条件的首次注视时间差异不显著。大号字在部件位置错误条件的首次注视时间显著长于部件内容错误。部件位置错误条件总注视时间均显著短于部件内容错误。以上结果暗示了汉字识别中整体和局部加工存在不同的时间进程。     

汉语字词识别中词频和语义透明度的交互作用

该研究通过词汇判断作业考察了中文双字合成词的心理表征问题。目标刺激为高频透明、高频不透明、低频透明、低频不透明词各12个和48个假词,被试任务为即既又准的判断目标刺激是否是一个词。结果发现,高频词的词汇判断速度快于低频词,透明词的词汇判断速度快于不透明词,词频和语义透明度有显著的交互作用。透明度对低频词的识别所起的作用大于对高频词的识别所起的作用。     

中文词汇加工的若干效应:基于眼动研究的证据

通过眼动仪记录读者阅读过程中的眼动特征,发现了一些重要的效应,这些效应有助于深化人们对阅读过程的认识.本文将从阅读材料的空间信息、词汇特性、语言因素和词结构四个方面总结在词汇加工中所发现的重要效应.最后,对各效应之间的相互关系及其在词汇加工的理论模型中的作用进行了探讨,并指出眼动技术与ERP技术相结合的多样化研究趋势.     

The Impact of Stimuli Color in Lexical Decision and Semantic Word Categorization Tasks

In two experiments, we examined the impact of color on cognitive performance by asking participants to categorize stimuli presented in three different colors: red, green, and gray (baseline). Participants were either asked to categorize the meaning of words as related to the concepts of “go” or “stop” (Experiment 1) or to indicate if a neutral verbal stimulus was a word or not (lexical decision task, Experiment 2). Overall, we observed performance facilitation in response to go stimuli presented in green (vs. red or gray) and performance inhibition in response to go stimuli presented in red. The opposite pattern was observed for stop‐related stimuli. Importantly, results also indicated that color might also be used to categorize neutral stimuli. Overall, these findings provide support to the green‐go and red‐stop color associations and test the potential functional autonomy acquired by these colors and the boundary conditions to their effects on stimuli categorization.     

词切分对日-汉双语者汉语阅读影响的眼动研究

以24名日-汉双语者为被试, 采用EyeLink2000眼动仪, 通过两个实验来探讨词切分对日-汉双语者汉语句子阅读的影响。实验一采用四种词切分方式：正常条件、词间空格条件、非词空格条件和字间空格条件。为了确保四种词切分条件下句子的空间分布一致, 实验二采用灰条标记作为字、词或非词的边界。结果发现：(1)在总体和局部分析中, 词间空格条件下平均注视时间显著少于正常条件; 非词空格和字间空格条件下的阅读时间更长、注视次数更多。(2)在总体分析中, 总句子阅读时间和总注视次数在正常条件和词间空格条件中差异不显著; 局部分析中, 词间空格条件比正常条件下的阅读时间更短、注视次数更少。表明日-汉双语者在阅读词间空格文本和正常文本一样容易; 词切分对日-汉双语者汉语阅读的词汇识别有促进作用; 在汉语阅读中, 词是重要的加工单位。     

Visual Similarity of Words Alone Can Modulate Hemispheric Lateralization in Visual Word Recognition: Evidence From Modeling Chinese Character Recognition

In Chinese orthography, the most common character structure consists of a semantic radical on the left and a phonetic radical on the right (SP characters); the minority, opposite arrangement also exists (PS characters). Recent studies showed that SP character processing is more left hemisphere (LH) lateralized than PS character processing. Nevertheless, it remains unclear whether this is due to phonetic radical position or character type frequency. Through computational modeling with artificial lexicons, in which we implement a theory of hemispheric asymmetry in perception but do not assume phonological processing being LH lateralized, we show that the difference in character type frequency alone is sufficient to exhibit the effect that the dominant type has a stronger LH lateralization than the minority type. This effect is due to higher visual similarity among characters in the dominant type than the minority type, demonstrating the modulation of visual similarity of words on hemispheric lateralization.