Visual word processing efficiency for Chinese characters and English words
The Word Superiority Effect (WSE) refers to the phenomenon where a single letter is recognized more accurately when presented within a word, compared to when it is presented alone or in a random string. However, previous research has produced conflicting findings regarding whether this effect also o...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Elsevier
2023-08-01
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| Series: | Acta Psychologica |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0001691823001622 |
| _version_ | 1797754054136299520 |
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| author | Hanshu Zhang Paul M. Garrett Pei-Yi Lin Joseph W. Houpt Cheng-Ta Yang |
| author_facet | Hanshu Zhang Paul M. Garrett Pei-Yi Lin Joseph W. Houpt Cheng-Ta Yang |
| author_sort | Hanshu Zhang |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The Word Superiority Effect (WSE) refers to the phenomenon where a single letter is recognized more accurately when presented within a word, compared to when it is presented alone or in a random string. However, previous research has produced conflicting findings regarding whether this effect also occurs in the processing of Chinese characters. The current study employed the capacity coefficient, a measure derived from the Systems Factorial Technology framework, to investigate processing efficiency and test for the superiority effect in Chinese characters and English words. We hypothesized that WSE would result in more efficient processing of characters/words compared to their individual components, as reflected by super capacity processing. However, contrary to our predictions, results from both the “same” (Experiment 1) and “different” (Experiment 2) judgment tasks revealed that native Chinese speakers exhibited limited processing capacity (inefficiency) for both English words and Chinese characters. In addition, results supported an English WSE with participants integrating English words and pseudowords more efficiently than nonwords, and decomposing nonwords more efficiently than words and pseudowords. In contrast, no superiority effect was observed for Chinese characters. To conclude, the current work suggests that the superiority effect only applies to English processing efficiency with specific context rules and does not extend to Chinese characters. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-12T17:27:55Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-cab09d6d1d0942958004111f196c744a |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 0001-6918 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-12T17:27:55Z |
| publishDate | 2023-08-01 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Acta Psychologica |
| spelling | doaj.art-cab09d6d1d0942958004111f196c744a2023-08-05T05:14:56ZengElsevierActa Psychologica0001-69182023-08-01238103986Visual word processing efficiency for Chinese characters and English wordsHanshu Zhang0Paul M. Garrett1Pei-Yi Lin2Joseph W. Houpt3Cheng-Ta Yang4Key Laboratory of Adolescent Cyberpsychology and Behavior (CCNU), Ministry of Education, Wuhan 430079, China; School of Psychology, Central China Normal University, Key Laboratory of Human Development and Mental Health of Hubei Province, Wuhan 430079, China; Correspondence to: H. Zhang, No.152 Luoyu Road, Wuhan 430079, Hubei, China.School of Psychological Sciences, The University of Melbourne, AustraliaDepartment of Psychology, National Cheng Kung University, TaiwanDepartment of Psychology, University of Texas, San Antonio, USADepartment of Psychology, National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan; Graduate Institute of Mind, Brain and Consciousness, Taipei Medical University, Taiwan; Graduate Institute of Health and Biotechnology Law, Taipei Medical University, Taiwan; Correspondence to: C.-T. Yang, 250 Wu-Hsing Street, Taipei city 110, Taiwan.The Word Superiority Effect (WSE) refers to the phenomenon where a single letter is recognized more accurately when presented within a word, compared to when it is presented alone or in a random string. However, previous research has produced conflicting findings regarding whether this effect also occurs in the processing of Chinese characters. The current study employed the capacity coefficient, a measure derived from the Systems Factorial Technology framework, to investigate processing efficiency and test for the superiority effect in Chinese characters and English words. We hypothesized that WSE would result in more efficient processing of characters/words compared to their individual components, as reflected by super capacity processing. However, contrary to our predictions, results from both the “same” (Experiment 1) and “different” (Experiment 2) judgment tasks revealed that native Chinese speakers exhibited limited processing capacity (inefficiency) for both English words and Chinese characters. In addition, results supported an English WSE with participants integrating English words and pseudowords more efficiently than nonwords, and decomposing nonwords more efficiently than words and pseudowords. In contrast, no superiority effect was observed for Chinese characters. To conclude, the current work suggests that the superiority effect only applies to English processing efficiency with specific context rules and does not extend to Chinese characters.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0001691823001622Workload capacitySystems factorial technologyWord recognitionWord superiority effect |
| spellingShingle | Hanshu Zhang Paul M. Garrett Pei-Yi Lin Joseph W. Houpt Cheng-Ta Yang Visual word processing efficiency for Chinese characters and English words Acta Psychologica Workload capacity Systems factorial technology Word recognition Word superiority effect |
| title | Visual word processing efficiency for Chinese characters and English words |
| title_full | Visual word processing efficiency for Chinese characters and English words |
| title_fullStr | Visual word processing efficiency for Chinese characters and English words |
| title_full_unstemmed | Visual word processing efficiency for Chinese characters and English words |
| title_short | Visual word processing efficiency for Chinese characters and English words |
| title_sort | visual word processing efficiency for chinese characters and english words |
| topic | Workload capacity Systems factorial technology Word recognition Word superiority effect |
| url | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0001691823001622 |
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