The
Nature of Character-component Interaction in Chinese Character
Perception
M.-Y. Wang |
The
PISA (parallel input serial access) model assumes independence and
competition of word-level and letter-level processing (Allen & Madden,
1990; Allen & Emerson, 1991), while the IA (interactive activation)
model proposes that word-level and letter-level processing interactively
exchange information (McClelland & Rumelhart, 1981). This current
study attempts to explore which of these two views characterizes
the character-component relationship in Chinese character recognition
using the component detection task. Experiment 1 found a high-frequency
disadvantage for high- and medium-frequency components, a medium-frequency
advantage for low-frequency components, and an overall character
superiority effect. Experiment 2 cued and blocked the location of
the target component and it ruled out an artifact account for findings
from Experiment 1. The effect of character structure was also consistent
across the two experiments. These findings are not consistent with
the straightforward prediction of the PISA or the IA view of character-component
relationship and an alternative explanation was considered. Key words: Chinese character recognition, character frequency, radical frequency, character inferiority effect |