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.     

汉字形声字声旁的语义加工(英文)

作为汉字书写系统和意义表达基本单位的汉字可分为独体字(占5％)和合体字(占95％)两大类。绝大多数合体字由两部分组成：义旁(通常在左边)和声旁(通常在右边)。声旁能够为这些合体字提供语音信息。根据声旁的读音与整字的读音是否一致,可把合体字分为规则字和不规则字。本研究的目的在于考察合体字声旁的亚词汇加工是否仅仅是一个纯粹的语音事件,只涉及声旁的语音加工,还是同时也是一个语义事件,涉及到声旁语义信息的激活。要求被试对屏幕上先后呈现的合体字(如“冯”)和与其声旁语义相关的字(“牛”)作语义相关判断。整字之间并无语义关系,被试正确的反应应是“否”。实验结果表明,相对于完全无关的控制组(如“冯——后”)来说,被试对声旁相关组的反应明显减慢,出现了抑制效应。这种效应基本不受整字的读音规则性和呈现顺序的影响。这些实验结果表达了合体字加工中的分解和平行激活过程。在整字加工的同时,声旁在心理词典中的语音和语义表征得到了激活。汉字声旁的亚词汇加工既是个语音事件,也是个语义事件,与词汇水平的加工没有本质的区别。     

关于听觉条件下中文字词劣效果的研究

对听觉条件下中文字词劣效果的问题进行了实验考察,结果发现：在文章听点作业中,被试对高、低频目标字词语音的正误判断量存在着显著性差别,前者较后者成绩差,表现出字词劣效果的现象;在单字词的听点作业中,未发现被试对高、低频目标字词语音正误判断量方面的显著性差别;无论在文章还是单字词的听点作业中,被试对高、低频目标字词语音的正误判断量均比较低下,表明语音知觉的范畴性特征对字词语音的辩认准确性具有较大影响。     

Holistic versus analytic processing: Evidence for a different approach to processing of Chinese at the word and character levels in Chinese children

Among 30 Hong Kong Chinese fourth graders, sensitivities to character and word constructions were examined in judgment tasks at each level. There were three conditions across both tasks: the real condition, consisting of either actual two-character compound Chinese words or real Chinese compound characters; the reversed condition, with either the order of the two morphemes in the word or the order of the semantic and phonetic radicals in the character reversed; and the random condition, with either two morphemes randomly combined to create arbitrary nonwords or a semantic radical and a phonetic radical randomly combined using correct orthographic rules to create noncharacters. On the word level, children performed worst in the reversed condition and best with real words, whereas on the character level, children performed worst in the random condition and best in the reversed condition. Findings imply a holistic tendency toward word-level processing and an analytic approach to character-level processing in these Chinese children.     

Visual field differences in visual word recognition can emerge purely from perceptual learning: evidence from modeling Chinese character pronunciation

In Chinese orthography, a dominant character structure exists in which a semantic radical appears on the left and a phonetic radical on the right (SP characters); a minority opposite arrangement also exists (PS characters). As the number of phonetic radical types is much greater than semantic radical types, in SP characters the information is skewed to the right, whereas in PS characters it is skewed to the left. Through training a computational model for SP and PS character recognition that takes into account of the locations in which the characters appear in the visual field during learning, but does not assume any fundamental hemispheric processing difference, we show that visual field differences can emerge as a consequence of the fundamental structural differences in information between SP and PS characters, as opposed to the fundamental processing differences between the two hemispheres. This modeling result is also consistent with behavioral naming performance. This work provides strong evidence that perceptual learning, i.e., the information structure of word stimuli to which the readers have long been exposed, is one of the factors that accounts for hemispheric asymmetry effects in visual word recognition.     

Orthographic combinability and phonological consistency effects in reading Chinese phonograms: an event-related potential study

In this study, event-related potentials (ERPs) were used to trace the temporal dynamics of phonological consistency and phonetic combinability in the reading of Chinese phonograms. The data showed a significant consistency-by-combinability interaction at N170. High phonetic combinability characters elicited greater negativity at N170 than did low phonetic combinability characters, and the combinability effect was only found in the reading of high consistency characters. The results support the phonological mapping hypothesis of the reading-related N170 effect and suggest that the earlier stages of visual word recognition are shaped by the mapping of orthography to phonology even in Chinese. Moreover, our data revealed both consistency and combinability effects at P200 and N400, accounted for by the two-stage framework for visual word recognition. That is, characters with high combinability or high consistency facilitated the earlier stages of orthographic or phonological processing which were due to increased activation at the perceptual level; consequently, less positive P200 was demonstrated. In the later stages, high combinability or high consistency characters were associated with a larger semantic neighborhood, which increased semantic competition and exaggerated the N400 effect. These data support the assumption of radical-based inputs proposed by the lexical constituent model. However, the phonetic consistency effects found at N170 and P200 cannot be reconciled with the current framework of the lexical constituent model. A possible revision will be discussed.     

义符的类别一致性和家族大小影响形声字的语义加工

采用行为实验和眼动技术考察义符的类别一致性和家族大小对形声字语义加工的影响。结果发现：(1) 在一致性判断和视觉选择中均存在着字词水平的类别一致性效应, 义符同整字类别一致的字容易认知。(2) 义符的家族大小影响形声字的语义加工, 义符家族大, 汉语母语者对形声字的加工更容易采用形旁推理策略。(3) 义符家族的类别一致性影响形声字的语义加工。(4) 义符家族的类别一致性和家族大小效应受义符与整字的类别一致性调节。     

Comparison of brain mechanisms underlying the processing of Chinese characters and pseudo-characters: an event-related potential study

Most Chinese characters are composed of a semantic radical on the left and a phonetic radical on the right. The semantic radical provides the semantic information; the phonetic radical provides information concerning the pronunciation of the whole character. The pseudo‐characters in the study consisted of different sub‐lexical parts of real Chinese characters and consequently they also had the semantic radical and the phonetic radical. But they were not readable and had no actual meaning. In order to investigate the spatiotemporal cortical activation patterns underlying the orthographic, phonological and semantic processing of Chinese characters, we used event‐related brain potentials (ERPs) to explore the processing of Chinese characters and pseudo‐characters when 14 healthy Chinese college students viewed the characters passively. Results showed that both Chinese characters and pseudo‐characters elicited an evident negative potential peaking around 120 ms (N120), which appeared to reflect initial orthographic distinction and evaluation. Then, Chinese pseudo‐characters elicited a more positive ERP deflection (P220) than did Chinese characters 200–250 ms after onset of the stimuli. It was similar to the recognition potential (RP) and might reflect the integration processes of phonological and semantic processing on the basis of early orthographic information. Dipole source analysis of the difference wave (pseudo‐characters minus characters) indicated that a generator localized in the left temporal‐occipital junction contributed to this effect, which was possibly related to phonological and perceptual–semantic information integration. Between 350–450 ms, a greater negativity (N360) in pseudo‐characters as compared to characters was found over midline fronto‐central scalp regions. Dipole analysis localized the generator of N360 in the right parahippocampal cortex. Therefore, the N360 might be an N400 component and reflect the higher‐level semantic activation on the basis of orthographic, phonological and perceptual–semantic processing.     

汉字认知过程中整字对部件的影响

英文研究中,"字优效应"是单词促进字母加工的一个重要依据。但中文研究中还存在一些争议。本研究通过两个实验考查了汉字的部件认知中,汉字整体对局部(部件)的影响。实验刺激材料分为三种,即左右结构或上下结构的真字、假字与部件字。目标部件为既能够放置于三种字符的左侧,又能放置于右侧(上部或下部)的汉字部件。实验一采用Reicher-Wheeler实验任务,先呈现刺激材料350ms,掩蔽后再呈现需要判断的目标部件,被试对目标部件进行按键反应。实验二中采用部件判断实验任务,先呈现需要判断的目标部件,再呈现刺激材料,被试对刺激材料中是否包含目标部件进行按键反应。记录反应时与正确率。27位健康女性大学生参与本实验。结果显示:(1)不论是Reicher-Wheeler实验任务还是部件判断实验任务,均显示部件字的部件认知判断速度最快。真字与假字相比,无"字优效应"。真字与部件字相比,存在着"字劣效应"。这些结果表明,汉字整字对汉字部件认知加工起到抑制作用;(2)两个实验任务均表现出汉字结构方式效应,即对左右结构的汉字的部件认知比上下结构的汉字更快;(3)部件的空间位置对部件识别存在影响。实验一中对下部件分辨最困难,分辨时间最长;实验二中发现对左部件的反应最快。字符结构方式效应与部件空间位置效应既存在于真字中,也存在于假字中。     

Position of phonetic components may influence how written words are processed in the brain: Evidence from Chinese phonetic compound pronunciation

Previous studies have shown a right-visual-field (RVF)/left-hemisphere (LH) advantage in Chinese phonetic compound pronunciation. Here, we contrast the processing of two phonetic compound types: a dominant structure in which a semantic component appears on the left and a phonetic component on the right (SP characters), and a minority structure with the opposite arrangement (PS characters). We show that this RVF/LH advantage was observed only in SP character pronunciation, but not in PS character pronunciation. This result suggests that SP character processing is more LH lateralized than is PS character processing and is consistent with corresponding ERP N170 data. This effect may be due to the dominance of SP characters in the lexicon, which makes readers opt to obtain phonological information from the right of the characters. This study thus shows that the overall information distribution of word components in the lexicon may influence how written words are processed in the brain. Supplemental materials for this article may be downloaded from http://cabn .psychonomic-journals.org/content/supplemental.     

亚词汇水平加工的本质:形旁的语音激活

该研究利用启动命名技术,探讨了汉字加工时是否存在着形旁的语音激活。把含有独立成字的形旁的合体字（如“躲”）作为启动字,与形旁同音的字（如“深”）作为目标字。结果发现,当合体字是低频字时,目标字的命名速度显著加快。高频合体字则没有此效应。集合Ｚｈｏｕ和Ｍａｒｓｌｅｎ－Ｗｉｌｓｏｎ关于声旁语义激活的研究,该文得出结论说,汉字亚同汇水平的加工与词汇水平的加工表现一样,两者之间并无本质性的差别。     

形旁家族、声旁家族和高频同声旁字对形声字识别的影响

通过3个实验,考察形旁家族、声旁家族和高频同声旁字对汉字形声字识别的影响。实验1考察形旁家族大小及声旁语音信息的作用。实验2和实验3考察声旁家族大小和高频同声旁字的作用。结果发现,形旁家族和声旁家族大对形声字识别起促进作用;高频同声旁字在使用假字时起抑制作用,在使用非字时无作用;在使用假字时,形旁家族小时识别声旁不可发音的字快于识别声旁可发音的字。研究结果支持字词识别的交互激活模型     

Effects of visual complexity and sublexical information in the occipitotemporal cortex in the reading of Chinese phonograms: a single-trial analysis with MEG

We employ a linear mixed-effects model to estimate the effects of visual form and the linguistic properties of Chinese characters on M100 and M170 MEG responses from single-trial data of Chinese and English speakers in a Chinese lexical decision task. Cortically constrained minimum-norm estimation is used to compute the activation of M100 and M170 responses in functionally defined regions of interest. Both Chinese and English participants’ M100 responses tend to increase in response to characters with a high numbers of strokes. English participants’ M170 responses show a posterior distribution and only reflect the effect of the visual complexity of characters. On the other hand, the Chinese participants’ left hemisphere M170 is increased when reading characters with high number of strokes, and their right hemisphere M170 is increased when reading characters with small combinability of semantic radicals. Our results suggest that expertise with words and the decomposition of word forms underlies processing in the left and right occipitotemporal regions in the reading of Chinese characters by Chinese speakers.     

三、五年级儿童形声字识别中形旁和声旁家族效应

采用2（年级）×2（声旁家族大小）×2（形旁家族大小）三因素混合实验设计,在形声字识别中考察了三、五年级儿童的形旁和声旁家族效应。结果仅在三年级中发现了显著的形旁家族大小效应,而五年级中却没有发现。但两个年级中形旁和声旁家族的交互作用均显著。进一步分析发现在声旁处于大家族时,形旁也处于大家族时,三、五年级儿童的反应时更快。此结果说明声旁和形旁家族共同影响形声字识别,但在三年级儿童中,形旁家族效应可以不依赖于声旁家族单独发挥作用,五年级儿童中却没有独立的形旁家族效应。     

儿童汉字读音声旁一致性意识的发展

采用同音判断的方法,考察儿童对汉字读音声旁一致性意识的发展。一个熟悉字和一个不熟悉字共用同一个声旁,该声旁在提示整字发音时可以是一致的,即包含此声旁的所有汉字都发音相同,也可以是不一致的。要求儿童猜测不熟悉字的读音,作出它与熟悉字“是”、“否”同音的判断。结果发现,儿童很早就意识到汉字的结构以及声旁和形旁在表音、表义功能上的分工。随着年级的升高,声旁一致性对猜测不熟悉汉字读音的影响增强。小学四年级语文能力较高的儿童已经开始意识到声旁的一致性;六年级儿童总体上说来已发展了一致性意识。初二年级的学生发展了声旁一致性意识,且没有能力差异。大学生的声旁一致性意识最强。     

声旁语音信息对形声字加工的影响——来自眼动研究的证据

与拼音文字不同, 汉字是形义结合更紧密的文字, 因此语音信息在语义通达中的作用一直是汉语加工研究中存在争议的问题。形声字作为汉字的主体(80%), 其声旁在一定程度上提供了字的语音信息, 本文通过两项眼动研究考察了左右结构和上下结构形声字的声旁语音信息对形声字加工的影响。结果发现, 当声旁在右或声旁在下时, 省前与略后条件没有显著差异, 甚至出现差异的逆转, 也就是说当略后的笔画中包含声旁时, 亚词汇层面的声旁语音信息会影响到“笔画顺序效应”, 实验结果说明声旁的语音信息对形声字的加工起到重要作用。     

Attention can operate on semantic objects defined by individual Chinese characters

Attention can select perceptual objects, but it is less clear whether attention can operate on objects defined by higher level cognition, such as semantic associations. Recent studies have shown that attention may be based on objects defined by Chinese two-character compound words, suggesting that attention can operate on semantic objects. In the present study, object-based attention (OBA) effect was investigated at the level of individual Chinese characters, and the role of character structure and radical order in OBA was explored by using a spatial cueing paradigm. In Experiment 1, we found OBA effect for conditions that had legal radical order, but not for other conditions in which the radical order information was disrupted. Character structure, however, had no influence on the OBA effect. In Experiment 2, we observed OBA effect for all conditions after enhancing the radical order and character structure information by adding perceptual cues. The results extend previous findings of a “semantic object”-based attention effect from the two-character word level to the individual character level. Moreover, we found that radical order but not character structure was important for this semantic OBA effect. We conclude that visual attention can be based on semantic objects at the level of individual characters, and that the development of semantic objects is affected by the perceptual grouping of the radicals.     

义符熟悉性对高频形声字词汇通达的影响

采用启动词汇判断范式,考察义符熟悉性对高频汉字形声字认知的影响。结果表明,义符加工与整字加工存在动态的交互作用。在加工早期,高频汉字形声字的整字语义已经激活,但此时义符的语义并未激活。高熟悉性义符的词形启动比低熟悉性义符早。随着SOA增长,高、低熟悉性义符的语义都出现激活。到了加工晚期,汉字形声字整字的语义激活仍然显著,但义符的语义激活消失,表明字词认知的整合过程已经完成。这一结果支持汉字认知中整字加工和部件加工相结合的观点     

Hemispheric processing of lexical information in Chinese character recognition and its relationship to reading performance

Hemispheric predominance has been well documented in the visual perception of alphabetic words. However, the hemispheric processing of lexical information in Chinese character recognition and its relationship to reading performance are far from clear. In the divided visual field paradigm, participants were required to judge the orthography, phonology, or semantics of Chinese characters, which were presented randomly in the left or right visual field. The results showed a right visual field/left hemispheric superiority in the phonological judgment task, but no hemispheric advantage in the orthographic or semantic task was found. In addition, reaction times in the right visual field for phonological and semantic tasks were significantly correlated with the reading test score. These results suggest that both hemispheres involved in the orthographic and semantic processing of Chinese characters, and that the left lateralized phonological processing is important for Chinese fluent reading.     

二、三和五年级儿童对形旁语义的加工

结合启动范式和汉字判断任务,通过操纵目标字语义透明度,在汉字阅读过程探查了二、三、五年级儿童对形旁语义的加工。采用 3×2×2 混合实验设计,自变量为被试类型（小学二、三、五年级儿童）、启动字类型（字形相关 vs. 无关）和目标字类型（透明字 vs. 模糊字）。结果发现启动字类型、目标字类型和年级三者交互作用显著。随后分析在三五年级儿童中发现了显著的独立于字形的形旁语义启动效应,启动字中的共享形旁对模糊字的识别产生了更大的抑制作用,而在二年级儿童中并没有发现这种效应。说明形旁语义在儿童的心理词典中存在独立表征,可以被激活并促进儿童对汉字的识别,但是需要儿童的阅读理解能力发展到一定程度。