ERIC Number: EJ993150
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2012-Nov
Pages: 9
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0278-7393
EISSN: N/A
Plausibility Effects when Reading One- and Two-Character Words in Chinese: Evidence from Eye Movements
Yang, Jinmian; Staub, Adrian; Li, Nan; Wang, Suiping; Rayner, Keith
Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, v38 n6 p1801-1809 Nov 2012
Eye movements of Chinese readers were monitored as they read sentences containing a critical character that was either a 1-character word or the initial character of a 2-character word. Due to manipulation of the verb prior to the target word, the 1-character target word (or the first character of the 2-character target word) was either plausible or implausible, as an independent word, at the point at which it appeared, whereas the 2-character word was always plausible. The eye movement data showed that the plausibility manipulation did not exert an influence on the reading of the 2-character word or its component characters. However, plausibility significantly influenced reading of the 1-character target word. These results suggest that processes of semantic integration in reading Chinese are performed at a word level, instead of a character level, and that word segmentation must take place very early in the course of processing. (Contains 2 tables and 5 footnotes.)
Descriptors: Foreign Countries, Chinese, Oral Reading, Sentences, Eye Movements, Evidence, Form Classes (Languages), Semantics, Language Processing, Ambiguity (Context), Context Effect
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: China
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A