Radical token frequency effect on Chinese character naming

1. Radical token frequency effect on Chinese character naming Jei-Tun WuYu-Fang Fu Department of Psychology National Taiwan University, Taiwan Partly supported by National Science Council, Taiwan. Project no: NSC92-2413-H-002-022, NSC93-2413-H-002-001.

2. Radical token frequency effect on Chinese character naming • Research background • Objectives • MethodExp 1Exp 2 • ResultsExp 1Exp 2 • Conclusion

3. Research background Sublexical process in English word recognition Wheeler (1970); Smith (1971); Taft & Forster (1975). Radical process in Chinese character recognition Ding, Peng, & Taft (2004); Taft & Zhu (1997); Taft, Zhu, & Peng (1999). Feldman & Siok (1997, 1999). Chen & Weekes (2004). Zhou & Marslen-Wilson (1999, 2002). Li & Chen (1999) Weak points to be improved Most studies did not manipulate character frequency. Most studies used lexical decision task only. 回

4. Objectives Pre-lexical process of phonetic radical during Chinese character naming. (Wu & Liu,1997) The present study -- An extension of Wu & Liu (1997) Further factors to be manipulated 1. The extent of spacing radicals to evaluate the binding strength from the character level. 2. Radical token frequency. 回

5. MethodExp1 Tasks to be compared CN: Normal character naming. PN: Phonetic naming in a character displayed with two radicals adjoined close. PNSB: Phonetic naming in a character displayed with two radicals spaced apart by a half-character sized blank. PNS2B: Phonetic naming in a character displayed with two radicals spaced apart by two blanks. Factors manipulated Character frequency (High as >100, Low as < 50 per million) Phonetic regularity Occurrence frequency of a phonetic standing alone as a character Token frequency of the phonetic radical (High as >1100, Low as <550 per million) Problem of boundary for selecting low radical token frequency in Exp 1 回

6. Method Exp2 Tasks to be compared CN: Normal character naming. PN: Phonetic naming in a character displayed with two radicals adjoined close. PNSB: Phonetic naming in a character displayed with two radicals spaced apart by a half-character sized blank. PNS2B: Phonetic naming in a character displayed with two radicals spaced apart by two blanks. Factors manipulated (Only characters with frequency <50 per million were used.) Phonetic regularity Occurrence frequency of a phonetic standing alone as a character Token frequency of the phonetic radical (High as >1100, Low as < 50 per million) Exp 1 and Exp 2 were combined and simultaneously executed, using the same participants. The stimuli of each of the two experiments were treated as parts of the fillers of the other one. 回

7. Table 1. RTs in ms (Errors %) of Exp 1. ResultsExp 1 • Character frequency in CN. • Regularity effect • Frequency of a phonetic standing alone as a character • Phonetic radical token frequency • Character frequency in PN • Interference of character frequency along PN, PNSB, and PNS2B. 回

8. Table 1. RTs in ms (Errors %) of Exp 1. Red: faster Blue: slower ResultsExp 11 • Character frequency in CN. • Regularity effect • Frequency of a phonetic standing alone as a character • Phonetic radical token frequency • Character frequency in PN • Interference of character frequency along PN, PNSB, and PNS2B. A strong facilitation effect of character frequency was obtained, indicating that high frequency characters were responded to faster than low frequency ones in CN, F1(1, 22) = 114.78, p < .0001; F2 (1, 104) = 46.10, p < .0001. 回

9. Table 1. RTs in ms (Errors %) of Exp 1. Red: faster Blue: slower ResultsExp 12 • Character frequency in CN. • Regularity effect • Frequency of a phonetic standing alone as a character • Phonetic radical token frequency • Character frequency in PN • Interference of character frequency along PN, PNSB, and PNS2B. A strong facilitation effect of regularity was obtained, indicating that regular characters were responded to faster than irregular ones, F1 (1, 22) = 46.15, p < .0001; F2 (1, 104) = 9.96, p <.01. Only low frequency regular characters were responded to faster than low frequency irregular ones, F1 (1, 44) = 68.96, p < .0001; F2 (1, 104) = 154.61, p < .0001. This result pattern replicated that from previous studies (e.g., Liu, Wu, & Chou, 1996) 回

10. Table 1. RTs in ms (Errors %) of Exp 1. ResultsExp 13 • Character frequency in CN. • Regularity effect • Frequency of a phonetic standing alone as a character • Phonetic radical token frequency • Character frequency in PN • Interference of character frequency along PN, PNSB, and PNS2B Occurrence frequency of a phonetic standing alone as a character, did not exhibit significant effect. So the two levels of data were collapsed in Table 1. 回

11. Table 1. RTs in ms (Errors %) of Exp 1. ResultsExp 14 • Character frequency in CN. • Regularity effect • Frequency of a phonetic standing alone as a character • Phonetic radical token frequency • Character frequency in PN • Interference of character frequency along PN, PNSB, and PNS2B Phonetic radical token frequency did not exhibit any significant effect on CN. 回

12. Table 1. RTs in ms (Errors %) of Exp 1. Red: faster Blue: slower ResultsExp 15 • Character frequency in CN. • Regularity effect • Frequency of a phonetic standing alone as a character • Phonetic radical token frequency • Character frequency in PN • Interference of character frequency along PN, PNSB, and PNS2B In PN, character frequency played a role of interfering the naming of phonetics. High character frequency inhibited the naming of phonetics more than low character frequency. This also replicated the findings of Wu & Liu (1997). 回

13. Table 1. RTs in ms (Errors %) of Exp 1. Red: faster Blue: slower ResultsExp 16 • Character frequency in CN. • Regularity effect • Frequency of a phonetic standing alone as a character • Phonetic radical token frequency • Character frequency in PN • Interference of character frequency along PN, PNSB, and PNS2B If we compared the magnitudes of interference effect of character frequency along PN, PNSB, and PNS2B, it will be found that only the two embedded radicals are spaced apart enough, the character as a whole then loses its binding strength and interference on processing its component radical. 回

14. Table 2. RTs in ms (Errors %) of Exp 2. ResultsExp 2 • Regularity effects under CN, PN, PNSB, PNS2B. • Frequency of a phonetic standing alone as a character. • Weak Phonetic token frequency . • Weak regularity × phonetic radical token frequency. • Weak phonetic token frequency × phonetic as a character. • Conditions showing token freq. effects. 回

15. Table 2. RTs in ms (Errors %) of Exp 2. Red: faster Blue: slower ResultsExp 21 • Regularity effects under CN, PN, PNSB, PNS2B. • Frequency of a phonetic standing alone as a character. • Weak Phonetic token frequency . • Weak regularity × phonetic radical token frequency. • Weak phonetic token frequency × phonetic as a character. • Conditions showing token freq. effects. Significant regularity facilitation effects obtained under low frequency character CN, PN, PNSB, and PNS2B. Under CN, F1 (1, 22) = 36.33, p < .0001, F2 (1, 40) = 17.36, p < .001, under PN, F1 (1, 18) = 58.04, p < .0001, F2 (1, 40) = 12.25, p < .01, under PNSB, F1 (1, 19) = 20.33, p < .001; F2 (1, 40) = 11.76, p < .01, and under PNS2B, F1 (1, 19) = 6.39, p < .05, F2 (1, 40) = 7.27, p < .05. 回

16. Table 2. RTs in ms (Errors %) of Exp 2. Red: faster Blue: slower ResultsExp 22 • Regularity effects under CN, PN, PNSB, PNS2B. • Frequency of a phonetic standing alone as a character. • Weak Phonetic token frequency . • Weak regularity × phonetic radical token frequency. • Weak phonetic token frequency × phonetic as a character. • Conditions showing token freq. effects. Occurrence frequency of phonetic radical as a character did not show any significant influence on CN. However, it did show significant facilitationeffect on PN, PNSB, and PNS2B. 回

17. Table 2. RTs in ms (Errors %) of Exp 2. Red: faster Blue: slower ResultsExp 23 • Regularity effects under CN, PN, PNSB, PNS2B. • Frequency of a phonetic standing alone as a character. • Weak Phonetic token frequency . • Weak regularity × phonetic radical token frequency. • Weak phonetic token frequency × phonetic as a character. • Conditions showing token freq. effects. Phonetic radical token frequency exerted a weak facilitation effect onCN, F1 (1, 22) = 5.61, p < .05, F2 (1, 40) < 1, while exerted a weak inhibition effect onPN,F1 (1, 18) = 8.73, p < .01, F2 (1, 40) = 4.07, p < .05,PNSB,F1 (1, 19) = 27.20, p < .0005, F2 (1, 40) = 5.48, p < .05, and PNS2B,F1 (1, 19) = 13.60, p < .01, F2 (1, 40) = 3.34, p > .05. This means that when the radical token frequency of a phonetic was very low, the response of naming that phonetic was faster. 回

18. Table 2. RTs in ms (Errors %) of Exp 2. Red: faster Blue: slower ResultsExp 24 • Regularity effects under CN, PN, PNSB, PNS2B. • Frequency of a phonetic standing alone as a character. • Weak Phonetic token frequency . • Weak regularity × phonetic radical token frequency. • Weak phonetic token frequency × phonetic as a character. • Conditions showing token freq. effects. There showed a weak interaction effect of regularity × phonetic radical token frequency, on CN,F1 (1, 22) = 4.86, p < .05, F2 (1, 40) < 1,on PNSB, F1 (1, 19) = 4.75, p < .05, F2 (1, 40) < 1,and on PNS2B, F1 (1, 19) = 5.38, p < .05, F2 (1, 40) < 1. Under the condition of irregular low frequency characters, radical token frequency exerted a weak facilitation effect on CN while exerted a weak inhibition effect on PNSB, and PNS2B. 回

19. Table 2. RTs in ms (Errors %) of Exp 2. Red: faster Blue: slower ResultsExp 25 • Regularity effects under CN, PN, PNSB, PNS2B. • Frequency of a phonetic standing alone as a character. • Weak Phonetic token frequency . • Weak regularity × phonetic radical token frequency. • Weak phonetic token frequency × phonetic as a character. • Conditions showing token freq. effects. There also showed a weak interaction effect between phonetic radical token frequency and occurrence frequency of phonetic as a character, on CN,F1 (1, 22) = 5.53, p < .05, F2 (1, 40) < 1,and on PNSB, F1 (1, 19) = 5.00, p < .05, F2 (1, 40) = 8.09, p < .01. Under the condition of phonetic as a low frequency character, radical token frequency exerted a weak facilitation effect on CN while exerted a weak inhibition effect on PNSB. 回

20. Table 2. RTs in ms (Errors %) of Exp 2. Red: faster Blue: slower ResultsExp 26 • Regularity effects under CN, PN, PNSB, PNS2B. • Frequency of a phonetic standing alone as a character. • Weak Phonetic token frequency . • Weak regularity × phonetic radical token frequency. • Weak phonetic token frequency × phonetic as a character. • Conditions showing token freq. effects. A further inspection of Table 2 showed that only under the conditions of low frequency characters embedding a phonetic which is in its own right standing as a low frequency character, phonetic radical token frequency exerted a weak facilitation effect on CN while exerted a weak inhibition effect on PN, PNSB, or PNS2B. 回

21. Conclusion An explanation of the results is as followed .... • On naming a high freq. character, attention is focused on the contour of the character as a whole rather than distributed on the embedding components. • While on naming a low frequency character, some shallow processes of the clues of embedding radicals will be conducted. • When the radical token frequency of an embedding phonetic is very low, it is difficult to find the clue of that phonetic, rendering a tendency of slowing the response of naming a low frequency character. • However, on the condition of naming a phonetic embedded in a character, the target radical needs to be deeply processed. By definition, the radical token frequency is always higher than the occurrence frequency of the character embedding that radical, even it is a low token frequency radical. This is why it is hard to observe the influence of manipulating radical token frequency. • The factor of radical token frequency usually co-varies with radical type frequency. The number of different characters embedding a same radical is defined as neighborhood size or type frequency of that radical. In Chinese, different characters with a same radical usually possess different pronunciations. • When the number of neighborhood characters is large, varieties of pronunciations would interfere with the pronunciation of the target character. While radical type frequency or token frequency is very low, there exists very few neighborhood characters to inhibit the target character naming process. • It is thus concluded that in most of conditions the embedding phonetic radical did not play a reliable obligatory role in daily character naming. Thank you… 回