Phonology and access to Chinese character meaning

One of the central concerns in theories of reading skills is the role of phonology in access to word meaning. The present study focused on this issue in Chinese to examine the extent to which phonology affects Chinese character recognition. Two naming experiments were conducted with a phonologically mediated semantic priming paradigm, and the relative frequencies of semantic associates of the targets and their homophones were manipulated systematically. Analyses showed that a semantic associate produced robust priming on target naming at 57- and 250-msec. stimulus onset asynchronies, but only the low frequency homophones of high frequency semantic associates facilitated target naming at a 250-msec. stimulus onset asynchrony. These results indicate the role of phonology is neither obligatory nor efficient in access to Chinese character meaning, contradicting the key assumptions of the lexical constituency model. A revised parallel access model that emphasizes visual access to semantics is suggested as a more plausible account.     

Orientation invariance in visual object priming depends on prime—target asynchrony

Two experiments are reported in which orientation effects on visual object recognition latency were examined. In Experiment 1, we assessed picture-naming performance as a function of image-plane stimulus orientation and found increasing response times with increased misorientation of the stimulus. In Experiment 2, we examined the repetition priming effect on the identification of upright targets as a function of prime orientation. With time delays of 100, 200, or 500 msec between the onset of the prime and that of the target (i.e., stimulus onset asynchrony [SOA]), the magnitude of the priming effect decreased with increasing misorientation of the prime. These results contrast with the orientationinvariant priming effects reported in some previous repetition priming studies. These investigations all used relatively long prime—target SOAs. Confirming the crucial role of the latter variable, Experiment 2 shows that the magnitude of the repetition priming effect is invariant across prime orientations with an SOA of 1,000 msec. The possible implications of the present observations with respect to the issue of orientation invariance versus dependency of the visual object recognition process are discussed.     

Orientation invariance in visual object priming depends on prime-target asynchrony

Two experiments are reported in which orientation effects on visual object recognition latency were examined. In Experiment 1, we assessed picture-naming performance as a function of image-plane stimulus orientation and found increasing response times with increased misorientation of the stimulus. In Experiment 2, we examined the repetition priming effect on the identification of upright targets as a function of prime orientation. With time delays of 100, 200, or 500 msec between the onset of the prime and that of the target (i.e., stimulus onset asynchrony [SOA]), the magnitude of the priming effect decreased with increasing misorientation of the prime. These results contrast with the orientation-invariant priming effects reported in some previous repetition priming studies. These investigations all used relatively long prime-target SOAs. Confirming the crucial role of the latter variable, Experiment 2 shows that the magnitude of the repetition priming effect is invariant across prime orientations with an SOA of 1,000 msec. The possible implications of the present observations with respect to the issue of orientation invariance versus dependency of the visual object recognition processare discussed.     

An anxiety-related bias in semantic activation when processing threat/neutral homographs

Three experiments are reported comparing high and low-trait anxious subjects in terms of their patterns of semantic activation in response to ambiguous primes, with one threat-related and one neutral meaning. Such primes were followed by targets related to either their threat or neutral meaning, or by unrelated targets, in a lexical decision task. Experiments 1 to 3 employed stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs) of 750 msec, 500 msec, and 1250 msec, respectively. At 500-msec SOA all subjects showed facilitation for both meanings. At 750-msec SOA the only significant priming effect was that for the threat-related meaning in the high-anxiety group, and a similar trend was found at 1250-msec SOA. Consideration of the patterns of priming for targets following ambiguous threat/neutral primes suggest that at the longer SOAs, high-anxiety subjects consciously “lock on” to a threatening interpretation if one has been made available by earlier automatic spreading activation.     

Impact of phonology on the generation of handwritten responses: Evidence from picture-word interference tasks

State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China The degree to which phonological codes constrain handwriting is at present controversial. Two experiments used a picture-word interference paradigm in which participants wrote down the names of pictures while attempting to ignore visual distractor words presented at various time intervals (SOAs). Distractors could be orthographically and phonologically related, orthographically related only, or unrelated. We found an exclusive effect of phonology at an early SOA, and orthographic priming at a later SOA. In a second experiment, we showed that the effect of phonology was diminished when writers engaged in concurrent articulatory suppression. The results suggest a role of phonology in the generation of handwritten words that is to some extent dependent on situational circumstances.     

The time course of semantic and associative priming effects is different in an attentional blink task

When two targets are presented using rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) and the interval between the targets is 200–500 ms, report of the second target is impaired, a phenomena known as the attentional blink (AB). This study examined the time course of semantic-only and associate–semantic priming effects during an AB task. Three RSVP experiments were conducted using targets that shared either a semantic-only or an associative–semantic relationship. The results of the three experiments demonstrated semantic-only priming effects at the shortest stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs). Associative–semantic priming was evident at shorter and longer SOAs. This suggests that priming in an AB task is driven by conceptual overlap facilitating lexical access at short SOAs and with longer SOAs lexical access benefits from word associations links between targets.     

Threshold-style processing of Chinese characters for adult second-language learners

To assess the learning of word form and meaning in an unfamiliar writing system, we carried out primed-naming experiments with learners of Chinese at the end of their first and second terms in a Chinese class at an American university. The subjects were required to name a target Chinese character after a prime character had been presented for 500 msec. There were three priming conditions defined by the relation between the prime and the target: orthographically similar, homophonic, and semantically related. At the end of the first term, there was a significant facilitation for naming speed in the orthographic condition, but not in the homophonic or semantic conditions. However, at the end of the second term, orthographical facilitation disappeared. Instead, naming speed was facilitated by semantically related primes. A threshold-style framework was proposed to illustrate the processing of Chinese orthography, phonology, and semantics by second-language learners.     

The contribution of prefixes to morphological processing of Spanish words

Three series of priming experiments were conducted to probe the morphological and phonological contributions to visual word recognition in Spanish. Prefixed, e.g., INCAPAZ (incapable), and pseudoprefixed, e.g., INDUSTRIA (industry) target words were presented for recognition following a prefixed, e.g., infeliz (unhappy), or pseudoprefixed, e.g., insulto (insult), prime starting with the same syllable as the target, at masked short or long stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs). At long SOAs the recognition of prefixed targets was facilitated by prefixed primes and inhibited by pseudoprefixed ones, whereas both prefixed and pseudoprefixed primes facilitated the recognition at short SOAs. In contrast, the recognition of pseudoprefixed targets was unaffected by the kind of prime presented, even when we used pairs of words overlapping in syllables that cannot be prefixes in Spanish. These results support a special status for morphological elements in access to meaning in reading.     

词汇加工初期语义属性的激活程度:来自ERP的证据

运用事件相关脑电位（ERP）技术,采用快速掩蔽启动范式和Go/Nogo范式,探讨汉语重复启动和语义相关启动中语义激活程度的差异和特点。实验中要求被试执行一个额外的语义判断任务,对关键刺激不做明显的行为反应。结果发现,在重复启动条件下获得了稳定的N400效应,语义相关启动条件下没有N400效应;重复启动和语义相关启动条件均未产生N250效应。在较短的SOA条件下,词频对语义的激活和加工不产生影响。     

Inhibitory stroke neighbour priming in character recognition and reading in Chinese

In alphabetic languages, prior exposure to a target word's orthographic neighbour influences word recognition in masked priming experiments and the process of word identification that occurs during normal reading. We investigated whether similar neighbour priming effects are observed in Chinese in 4 masked priming experiments (employing a forward mask and 33-ms, 50-ms, and 67-ms prime durations) and in an experiment that measured eye movements while reading. In these experiments, the stroke neighbour of a Chinese character was defined as any character that differed by the addition, deletion, or substitution of one or two strokes. Prime characters were either stroke neighbours or stroke non-neighbours of the target character, and each prime character had either a higher or a lower frequency of occurrence in the language than its corresponding target character. Frequency effects were observed in all experiments, demonstrating that the manipulation of character frequency was successful. In addition, a robust inhibitory priming effect was observed in response times for target characters in the masked priming experiments and in eye fixation durations for target characters in the reading experiment. This stroke neighbour priming was not modulated by the relative frequency of the prime and target characters. The present findings therefore provide a novel demonstration that inhibitory neighbour priming shown previously for alphabetic languages is also observed for nonalphabetic languages, and that neighbour priming (based on stroke overlap) occurs at the level of the character in Chinese.     

The relative time course of semantic and phonological activation in reading Chinese

The relative time course of semantic and phonological activation was investigated in the context of whether phonology mediates access to lexical representations in reading Chinese. Compound words (Experiment 1) and single-character words (Experiments 2 and 3) were preceded by semantic and phonological primes. Strong semantic priming effects were found at both short (57 ms) and long (200 ms) stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA), but phonological effects were either absent in lexical decision (Experiment 1), were present only at the longer SOA in character decision (Experiment 2) or were equally strong as semantic effects in naming (Experiment 3). Experiment 4 revealed facilitatory or inhibitory effects, depending on SOA, in phonological judgments to character pairs that were not phonologically but semantically related. It was concluded that, in reading Chinese, semantic information in the lexicon is activated at least as early and just as strongly as phonological information.     

Attentional capture in singleton-detection and feature-search modes

Six experiments were conducted to determine the circumstances under which an irrelevant singleton captures attention. Subjects searched for a target while ignoring a salient distractor that appeared at different stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs) prior to each search display. Spatial congruency and interference effects were measured. The strategies available to find the target were controlled (only singleton-detection mode, only feature-search mode, or both search strategies available). An irrelevant abrupt onset captured attention in search for a color target, across SOAs, whatever strategies were available. In contrast, in search for a shape target, an irrelevant color singleton captured attention in the singleton-detection condition but delayed response at its location in the feature-search condition, across SOAs. When both strategies were available, capture was short lived (50- to 100-msec SOAs). The theoretical implications of these findings in relation to current views on attentional capture are discussed. ((c) 2003 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of orthography are independent of phonology in masked form priming

Briefly presented forward-masked primes that share letters with a word target have been shown to facilitate performance in different word recognition tasks. However, in all the experiments that have previously reported these facilitatory effects, related primes not only shared more letters with the target than did unrelated primes (orthographic priming), but they also shared more phonemes (phonological priming). The stimuli used in the present experiments allow us to separate out the effects of orthographic priming from phonological priming. Varying prime exposure duration from 14 to 57 msec, it is shown that effects of orthography follow a distinct time-course from the effects of phonology, and that orthographic facilitation does not result from a confound with phonological prime-target overlap.     

Response priming with apparent motion primes

Response priming refers to the finding that a prime stimulus preceding a target stimulus influences the response to the following target stimulus. Typically, responses are faster and more accurate if the prime calls for the same response as the target (i.e., compatible trials), as compared with the situation where primes and targets trigger different responses (i.e., incompatible trials). However, the effect depends on presentational and temporal parameters such as the stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) of prime and target, or prime duration. Until now, the special role of moving stimuli was largely ignored. In the present research, experiments were conducted using clearly visible moving dots as primes and static arrows as targets. Essentially, with short SOAs up to 200 ms, participants responded faster to compatible targets. In contrast, with SOAs above 200 ms, participants responded faster to incompatible targets. The results were compared with response priming with static primes. Here, a different pattern of results emerged, with faster responses to compatible than incompatible targets at a long SOA of 300 ms. Overall, the experiments provide evidence for the existence of an inhibitory mechanism in action control when (distracting) motion stimuli are present. Results could be explained with slight changes to different accounts of negative response priming effects, as well as theories of attention.     

The time course of access to semantic information in high-performing older adults: behavioral evidence for the hemispheric asymmetry reduction in OLDer individuals

The possibility that the HAROLD phenomenon (i.e., Hemispheric Asymmetry Reduction in OLDer adults) is manifested in the course of access to semantic information, in particular the meaning of emotional words, was investigated using the visual half-field priming paradigm. The time course of priming was tracked in the cerebral hemispheres across three SOAs: 150, 300, and 750 ms. The results showed older and young adults had the same level of accuracy. While priming occurred unilaterally in young participants, the pattern of priming in older participants appeared to be bilateral whenever it was present, that is, at the 300- and 750-ms SOAs. The delay in the appearance of priming in older adults may be due to an increase in sensory thresholds that causes older adults to need more time to encode stimuli and fully activate their semantic network. It is concluded that the bilateral pattern of priming in the presence of an equivalent level of performance in older adults provides behavioral evidence supporting the compensatory role of the HAROLD phenomenon for this particular task.     

Word recognition and temporal order judgments: semantics turns back the clock.

This paper examines the consequences that codes activated during reading have on activities unrelated to reading by investigating the effects of semantics on temporal order judgments. Participants judged which of two word targets appeared first. Targets appeared either synchronously, or were separated by varying stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs). For one group of participants, one target on each trial was related to a prime word shown at the beginning of the trial. This priming relation affected temporal order judgments such that participants sometimes reported related targets as having appeared first, even when they appeared second. It is suggested that this effect is best explained as showing that codes activated during word recognition affect the attentional selection aspects of the temporal order judgment task.     

句子语境中汉语词汇形、音作用的眼动研究

采用眼动方法, 通过两个实验考查了句子语境中汉语词汇形、音的作用及其作用的时间进程。结果发现：(1)在高限制性句子语境中, 音同的凝视时间和总注视时间显著短于无关控制; (2)在低限制性句子语境中, 音同、形似的首视时间均显著短于无关控制; (3)词频效应出现在低限制性句子语境中。该结果表明, 句子语境影响词汇形、音的作用及作用的时间进程, 汉语词汇的意义可以由字形直接通达, 也可以由形和音两条路径得到通达。     

Predicting semantic priming at the item level

The current study explores a set of variables that have the potential to predict semantic priming effects for 300 prime–target associates at the item level. Young and older adults performed either lexical decision (LDT) or naming tasks. A multiple regression procedure was used to predict priming based upon prime characteristics, target characteristics, and prime–target semantic similarity. Results indicate that semantic priming (a) can be reliably predicted at an item level; (b) is equivalent in magnitude across standardized measures of priming in LDTs and naming tasks; (c) is greater following quickly recognized primes; (d) is greater in LDTs for targets that produce slow lexical decision latencies; (e) is greater for pairs high in forward associative strength across tasks and across stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs); (f) is greater for pairs high in backward associative strength in both tasks, but only at a long SOA; and (g) does not vary as a function of estimates from latent semantic analysis (LSA). Based upon these results, it is suggested that researchers take extreme caution in comparing priming effects across different item sets. Moreover, the current findings lend support to spreading activation and feature overlap theories of priming, but do not support priming based upon contextual similarity as captured by LSA.     

Spreading activation in episodic memory: Further evidence for age independence

Seventy-two young (mean age = 25 years) and 72 old adults (mean age = 71 years) participated in an experiment that addressed the influence of episodic and semantic prime activation on speeded episodic recognition judgements. On each test block, subjects studied two paragraphs at their own pace to achieve a designated level of episodic recognition performance. Following the study period, subjects were presented a series of prime-target trials for speeded episodic recognition. The primes were either (a) episodically related to the target, (b) semantically related to the target, (c) episodically and semantically related to the target, or (d) episodically and semantically unrelated to the target. The stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) between the primes and targets was either 200 msec, 600 msec, or 1000 msec to address age-related changes in the rate at which these different prime types influenced performance. The results indicated that, compared to young adults, the old adults (a) studied the paragraphs for a longer period of time, (b) responded to the targets more slowly, and (c) were less accurate in their episodic recognition decisions. Although there were these main effects of age, the young and old adults were influenced in a similar fashion by the different prime-target relationships and by the interactive influences of the prime-target relationships and SOA. Correlational analyses indicated that the pattern of priming effects was as similar across the two age groups as across two pseudo-groups that were matched on the age dimension. These results were viewed as further support for the notion that the characteristics of the spreading activation mechanism as reflected by prime-target manipulations are relatively stable across young and old adults.