Abstract: The study, through two experiments, was aimed to investigate the effects of phonological information in a radical on decision of Chinese pseudo-characters and non-characters. Experiment 1 was dedicated to studying the effects of phonological information and positional information in a radical on pseudo or non-characters. The results showed, a) reaction time for pseudo-characters was longer and accuracy rate for pseudo-characters was lower than those for non-characters; b) phonological information in a radical didn’t affect the decision of non-characters but did influence the decision of pseudo-characters; c) in contrast to the pseudo-characters in which radical had no phonological information, those with radical having phonological information were more difficult to judge. Experiment 2 was designated to examine the effect of two phonological factors, i.e., whether radical itself was pronounceable and whether it could function as phonological component of real Chinese characters. The results showed that both factors influenced decision of pseudo-characters. Chinese pseudo-characters with a pronounceable radical were more difficult to judge (i.e., longer reaction time and more errors to make a response) than those without a pronounceable radical. In contrast to the pseudo-characters in which radical couldn’t function as phonological component of a real Chinese character, those with such a radical were more difficult to decide. In addition, results suggested that the more phonological information a pseudo character possessed, the lower accuracy for judging would be. In the general discussion, a model was developed to describe the cognitive processes of judging a Chinese character with low frequency or a Chinese pseudo or non-character based on these findings.

Key words: Chinese character, pseudo-or non-character, phonology, radical/component, lexical decision