Abstract:

In visual word recognition of Chinese words, it is necessary to process the relative order of Chinese characters in words, i.e., processing of the position of Chinese characters. The processing of the position of Chinese characters is important for word recognition and reading comprehension. If the position of Chinese characters is not processed, it would be difficult to distinguish and recognize transposable words. Transposable words are composed of the same Chinese characters, but the order of Chinese characters is different between words. Previous studies have found that the processing of the position of Chinese characters is more flexible within a word in normal Chinese reading. In addition, the word boundary information affects the processing of the position of Chinese characters, that is, the processing of the position of Chinese characters has a word boundary effect during sentence reading. Which factors affect the word boundary effect of Chinese character position processing in text reading? In this project, the following three issues will be investigated systematically by using the eye tracking technique: (1) How do the initial/final characters of a word modulate the processing of Chinese character position? (2) How do the word boundaries of embedded words and ambiguous words affect Chinese character position processing? (3) How do word plausibility and predictability affect the word boundary effect of Chinese character position processing? In Study 1, the three-character words and four-character words were chosen as targets. We employed eye tracking technique to examine how the initial/final characters of a word modulate the processing of Chinese character position during reading. In this study, the cognitive mechanism of Chinese character position processing and word boundary effect was explored in character level. In Experiment 1, we investigated the effect of the initial/final characters of a three-character word. In Experiment 2, we investigated the effect of the initial/final characters of a four-character word. In Study 2, we employed eye tracking technique to examine how the word boundaries of embedded words and ambiguous words affect Chinese character position processing during reading. In this study, the cognitive mechanism of Chinese character position processing and word boundary effect was explored in word level. In Experiment 3, we investigated the cognitive mechanism of Chinese character position processing and word boundary effect of embedded words. In Experiment 4, we investigated the cognitive mechanism of Chinese character position processing and word boundary effect of ambiguous words. In Study 3, we examined how word plausibility and predictability affect the word boundary effect of Chinese character position processing. In this study, the cognitive mechanism of Chinese character position processing and word boundary effect was explored in contextual level during word segmentation process. In Experiment 5, we investigated the cognitive mechanism of Chinese character position processing and word boundary effect of word plausibility. In Experiment 6, we investigated the cognitive mechanism of Chinese character position processing and word boundary effect of predictability. The present project will promote our understanding of the cognitive mechanism of Chinese character position processing. So far, there has been not a model of character position encoding in Chinese reading. The present project will provide new insights into the construction of character position processing model in Chinese. In addition, character position encoding has been not included in the model of Chinese word segmentation and word recognition. This project will promote modification of the model of Chinese word segmentation and word recognition, and help us to understand the cognitive mechanism of Chinese word segmentation and word recognition deeply. Still, this project will provide new insights into the study of word segmentation in computer. Furthermore, the findings will provide us scientific guidance for efficient vocabulary teaching and learning.

Key words: Chinese, word segmentation, word boundaries, Chinese character position, eye movements