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.     

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.     

An examination of semantic radical combinability effects with lateralized cues in Chinese character recognition

Auclair and Siéroff examined lateralized cuing effects in the identification of centrally presented letter strings and reported no cuing effects for short word stimuli. They argued for a redistribution of attention over the entire word for short familiar words. We explored cuing effects with Chinese phonetic compounds, which can be considered extreme examples of short words, in a character-level semantic judgment task. When the semantic radical position was placed on the left of the characters, strong radical combinability and semantic transparency effects were observed. There was also a significant interaction between cue position (left vs. right) and radical combinability: A left cue facilitated semantic judgment of characters with small radical combinability more than did a right cue. This behavior reflects the information profile of Chinese phonetic compounds. Semantic radicals with small combinability are more informative than those with large combinability in determining the meaning of the whole character; they therefore benefit more from a left than a right cue. A mechanism redistributing attention over the whole of the character was not in evidence at the level of semantic processing.     

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。     

The modulation of stimulus structure on visual field asymmetry effects: The case of Chinese character recognition

Recent research suggests that visual field (VF) asymmetry effects in visual recognition may be influenced by information distribution within the stimuli for the recognition task in addition to hemispheric processing differences: Stimuli with more information on the left have a right VF (RVF) advantage because the left part is closer to the centre, where the highest visual acuity is obtained. It remains unclear whether visual complexity distribution of the stimuli also has similar modulation effects. Here we used Chinese characters with contrasting structures—left-heavy, symmetric, and right-heavy, in terms of either visual complexity of components or information distribution defined by location of the phonetic component—and examined participants' naming performance. We found that left-heavy characters had the largest RVF advantage, followed by symmetric and right-heavy characters; this effect was only observed in characters that contrasted in information distribution, in which information for pronunciation was skewed to the phonetic component, but not in those that contrasted only in visual complexity distribution and had no phonetic component. This result provides strong evidence for the influence of information distribution within the stimuli on VF asymmetry effects; in contrast, visual complexity distribution within the stimuli does not have similar modulation effects.     

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。     

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.     

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.     

汉字形声字识别中义符和声符的家族效应

采用词汇判断任务和ERP技术, 操纵义符和声符的家族大小, 考察形声字识别中义符和声符的家族效应。结果发现：(1)当义符为大家族时, 大家族声符字比小家族声符字诱发了更小的P200波幅; 当义符为小家族时, 大家族声符字和小家族声符字诱发的P200波幅差异不显著。(2)大家族声符字比小家族声符字诱发了更大的N400波幅, 但当义符为大家族时, 大、小家族声符字之间的差异比义符为小家族时更加显著。这说明, 义符和声符的家族大小共同影响形声字的识别, 声符的家族效应受义符的家族大小调节。研究表明, 在词汇识别的不同阶段, 义符和声符对资源的获取处于变化状态, 这取决于两者的呈现率差异。整个研究表明, 在形声字的识别中, 义符与声符的作用存在着博弈, 二者作用的此消彼长与加工阶段和家族大小有关。     

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。     

形旁和声旁在形声字识别中的作用

形声字是由表示意义范畴的义符(形旁)和表示发音信息的声符(声旁)组合而成, 以往研究虽然肯定了声旁在形声字加工中的作用, 但对形旁的作用仍存在一定争议。结合行为和脑电技术, 采用汉字判断任务, 以形旁和声旁均为独体字的形声字作为实验材料, 通过操纵形旁频率和声旁频率, 本研究进一步探讨了形旁和声旁在形声字识别中的作用。行为结果(实验1)发现形旁频率并未引发反应时和错误率上的显著变化, 而声旁频率在反应时和错误率上均产生了显著的效应, 相对于低频声旁, 高频声旁条件下的反应时更长、错误率更高。脑电结果(实验2)发现, 相对于低频形旁, 高频形旁在前脑区引发了一个波幅更小的N400; 而声旁频率不仅可以在全部脑区引发N400的变化, 同时在左脑的前、中脑区引发了P200的变化。相对于低频声旁, 高频声旁所引发的P200波幅更小, N400波幅更大。两实验结果说明, 在形声字识别中, 形旁和声旁均可以产生作用, 但形旁的激活时间要晚于声旁, 且作用相对较弱。     

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。     

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。     

Visual and phonological pathways to the lexicon: Evidence from Chinese readers

In this study, we investigated the role of visual and phonological information in lexical access of Chinese characters. Homophonic English words have been the main source of stimuli for word recognition research. However, since these stimuli also often look alike, visual and phonological information may be confounded in reported experiments. In contrast, many homophonic Chinese characters are visually distinct. In addition, visually similar characters often have very different pronunciations. These characteristics allow a more controlled investigation of the roles of visual and phonological information in activation of meaning. In the present study, two types of Chinese characters were used in a semantic categorization paradigm: integrated characters, which contain strokes that are not separable; and compound characters, which contain at least two clearly identifiable components. The results show that the recognition of a Chinese integrated character depends primarily on visual information, whereas the recognition of a Chinese compound character relies on visual, phonological, and semantic information. It is concluded that visual information plays a greater role in Chinese character recognition than has previously been documented.     

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     

Neuromagnetic signals associated with reading a kanji character formed by combining two kanji radicals

To find out which brain regions are responsible for the mental construction and recognition of a kanji character initiated by visually presented kanji radicals, rather than by information retained in the memory, a left hen radical and the corresponding right tsukuri radical were simultaneously presented randomly to either the left or right visual field of seven subjects. Thirty left hen radicals and the corresponding right tsukuri radicals were prepared as stimuli; this combination formed over 500 real or pseudo kanji characters. Instead of their usual left and right positions, the left hen radical was always presented above the right tsukuri radical. As quickly and correctly as possible, the subjects released a key when two kanji radicals constituted a single real kanji character and released another key otherwise. We recorded neuromagnetic responses as well as accuracy and reaction time. Left visual field superiority was observed as regards accuracy. This is in good agreement with previous neuropsychological results. Equivalent current dipoles were localized mainly in the left and/or right occipitotemporal regions (ventral visual pathways), the bilateral occipitoparietal regions (dorsal visual pathways) including the supramarginal region, and the areas surrounding the left superior temporal cortex. We suggest that these regions are related to reading and the mental construction of a kanji character from its radicals.     

The Inversion Effect for Chinese Characters is Modulated by Radical Organization

In studies of visual object recognition, strong inversion effects accompany the acquisition of expertise and imply the involvement of configural processing. Chinese literacy results in sensitivity to the orthography of Chinese characters. While there is some evidence that this orthographic sensitivity results in an inversion effect, and thus involves configural processing, that processing might depend on exact orthographic properties. Chinese character recognition is believed to involve a hierarchical process, involving at least two lower levels of representation: strokes and radicals. Radicals are grouped into characters according to certain types of structure, i.e. left–right structure, top–bottom structure, or simple characters with only one radical by itself. These types of radical structures vary in both familiarity, and in hierarchical level (compound versus simple characters). In this study, we investigate whether the hierarchical-level or familiarity of radical-structure has an impact on the magnitude of the inversion effect. Participants were asked to do a matching task on pairs of either upright or inverted characters with all the types of structure. Inversion effects were measured based on both reaction time and response sensitivity. While an inversion effect was observed in all 3 conditions, the magnitude of the inversion effect varied with radical structure, being significantly larger for the most familiar type of structure: characters consisting of 2 radicals organized from left to right. These findings indicate that character recognition involves extraction of configural structure as well as radical processing which play different roles in the processing of compound characters and simple characters.     

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.     

汉字亚词汇部件语音加工的P200效应

亚词汇加工是词汇识别研究中的一个重要领域,本研究考察了早期ERP成分P200如何受到汉字亚词汇部件语音信息的影响。在ERP实验中,被试对顺序呈现的启动字和目标字对进行语义判断。实验中“启动字-目标字”字对共享一个共同的可发音或不可发音的部件（如“吹-砍”、“扬-场”）。对目标字的P200效应分析显示：与部件不发音的目标字相比,部件可发音的目标字所诱发的P200显著增强。这种增强的ERP效应表明P200对汉字识别中亚词汇部件的语音加工非常敏感,其效应变化受到亚词汇语音的单独调节,同时也表明在汉字识别的早期阶段亚词汇部件语音信息就已被激活并在汉字加工中起重要作用。