Abstract: s Zeng et al. proposed that the space transparency of Chinese characters can be used to account for varieties of character form effects in visual perception of Chinese characters, such as, the effects of stroke number, stroke type and construction way. This study applied a new method that subjects were asked to report what they saw after the transforming Chinese characters were presented on screen for 1200ms. The results showed that there were construction way and stroke number effect as people had before disclosed, however, it is important that there is reverse effect of construction way. The space transparency computed according to an algorithm can reasonably account for these effects. This study and previous study can partially prove an important hypothesis on visual perception of Chinese characters that space transparency plays a leading role in varieties of form effects.

Key words: space transparency of Chinese character, transforming Chinese character, effect of stroke number, effect of construction way