An electrophysiological investigation of the role of orthography in accessing meaning of Chinese single-character words

This study reported the role of orthography in semantic activation processes of Chinese single-character words. Eighteen native Chinese speaking adults were recruited to take part in a Stroop experiment consisting of one-character color words and pseudowords which were orthographically similar to these color words. Classic behavioral Stroop effects, namely longer reaction times for incongruent conditions than for congruent conditions, were demonstrated for color words and pseudowords. A clear N450 was also observed in the two incongruent conditions. The participants were also asked to perform a visual judgment task immediately following the Stroop experiment. Results from the visual judgment task showed that participants could distinguish color words and pseudowords well (with a mean accuracy rate over 90 percent). Taken together, these findings support the direct orthography-semantic route in Chinese one-character words.

[1]  H. Mayberg,et al.  An ERP study of the temporal course of the Stroop color-word interference effect , 2000, Neuropsychologia.

[2]  William D. Marslen-Wilson,et al.  Lexical Representation of Compound Words--Cross-Linguistic Evidence , 2000 .

[3]  E Donchin,et al.  A new method for off-line removal of ocular artifact. , 1983, Electroencephalography and clinical neurophysiology.

[4]  Kin Fai Ellick Wong,et al.  Orthographic and Phonological Processing in Reading Chinese Text: Evidence From Eye Fixations , 1999 .

[5]  L. Tan,et al.  Phonological codes as early sources of constraint in Chinese word identification: A review of current discoveries and theoretical accounts , 1998 .

[6]  H. Shu,et al.  Lexical activation during the recognition of Chinese characters: Evidence against early phonological activation , 2001, Psychonomic bulletin & review.

[7]  William D. Marslen-Wilson,et al.  Pseudohomophone effects in processing Chinese compound words , 2009 .

[8]  Xiaolin Zhou,et al.  Processing the Chinese language: An introduction , 2009 .

[9]  A. Mecklinger,et al.  From orthography to meaning: an electrophysiological investigation of the role of phonology in accessing meaning of Chinese single-character words , 2010, Neuroscience.

[10]  Irving Biederman,et al.  On processing Chinese ideographs and English words: Some implications from Stroop-test results , 1979, Cognitive Psychology.

[11]  J. Polich,et al.  Task difficulty, probability, and inter-stimulus interval as determinants of P300 from auditory stimuli. , 1987, Electroencephalography and clinical neurophysiology.

[12]  L. Tan,et al.  Phonological codes as early sources of constraint in Chinese word identification: A review of current discoveries and theoretical accounts , 1998 .

[13]  M J Chen,et al.  Visual and phonological pathways to the lexicon: Evidence from Chinese readers , 1995, Memory & cognition.

[14]  John Polich,et al.  P300 and response time from a manual Stroop task , 1999, Clinical Neurophysiology.

[15]  William D. Marslen-Wilson,et al.  Phonology, orthography, and semantic activation in reading Chinese , 1999 .

[16]  Hua Shu,et al.  ERP correlates of the development of orthographical and phonological processing during Chinese sentence reading , 2008, Brain Research.

[17]  William D. Marslen-Wilson,et al.  The relative time course of semantic and phonological activation in reading Chinese. , 2000 .