The interaction of orthography, phonology and semantics in the process of second language learners' Chinese character production.

Theories of connectionism emphasize the mappings of orthography, phonology, and semantics in the process of word recognition and production. Chinese has a logographic writing system, which is markedly different from alphabetic languages. The current study investigated how orthography, phonology, and semantics contribute to Chinese character production among Chinese as a second language (CSL) learners. This study collected 33,856 Chinese characters in a sample of 2,116 CSL learners with 7 diverse L1s. ANOVA was conducted to examine the effect of Chinese character error type on 7 L1s and three Chinese proficiency levels. The results of ANOVA revealed that successful CSL learners' Chinese character production was derived from connections between orthography, semantics, and phonology. Semantics, especially the orthography-semantics connection, was the key point for production skills. Furthermore, connectionist models of languages rather than language distance affected production. These findings indicate that Chinese character production is associated with not only orthographic knowledge but also representation mechanisms of orthography, phonology, and semantics between different language writing systems. The results contribute to a better understanding of literacy skills in CSL learners. Future research could further address how CSL learners transform perceptive skills into production skills and the correlation between reading and writing skills by examining and controlling other important cognitive variables.

How Visual Word Decoding and Context-Driven Auditory Semantic Integration Contribute to Reading Comprehension: A Test of Additive vs. Multiplicative Models.

Theories of reading comprehension emphasize decoding and listening comprehension as two essential components. The current study aimed to investigate how Chinese character decoding and context-driven auditory semantic integration contribute to reading comprehension in Chinese middle school students. Seventy-five middle school students were tested. Context-driven auditory semantic integration was assessed with speech-in-noise tests in which the fundamental frequency (F0) contours of spoken sentences were either kept natural or acoustically flattened, with the latter requiring a higher degree of contextual information. Statistical modeling with hierarchical regression was conducted to examine the contributions of Chinese character decoding and context-driven auditory semantic integration to reading comprehension. Performance in Chinese character decoding and auditory semantic integration scores with the flattened (but not natural) F0 sentences significantly predicted reading comprehension. Furthermore, the contributions of these two factors to reading comprehension were better fitted with an additive model instead of a multiplicative model. These findings indicate that reading comprehension in middle schoolers is associated with not only character decoding but also the listening ability to make better use of the sentential context for semantic integration in a severely degraded speech-in-noise condition. The results add to our better understanding of the multi-faceted reading comprehension in children. Future research could further address the age-dependent development and maturation of reading skills by examining and controlling other important cognitive variables, and apply neuroimaging techniques such as functional magmatic resonance imaging and electrophysiology to reveal the neural substrates and neural oscillatory patterns for the contribution of auditory semantic integration and the observed additive model to reading comprehension.

Early top-down modulation in visual word form processing: Evidence from an intracranial SEEG study.

Visual word recognition, at a minimum, involves the processing of word form and lexical information. Opinions diverge on the spatiotemporal distribution of and interaction between the two types of information. Feedforward theory argues that they are processed sequentially, while interactive theory advocates that lexical information is processed fast and modulates early word form processing. To distinguish the two theories, we applied stereoelectroencephalography (SEEG) to 33 human adults with epilepsy (25 males and 8 females) during visual lexical decisions. The stimuli included real words (RWs), pseudowords (PWs) with legal radical positions, nonwords (NWs) with illegal radical positions, and stroked-changed words (SWs) in Chinese. Word form and lexical processing were measured by the word form effect (PW vs. NW) and lexical effect (RW vs. PW), respectively. Gamma-band (60 ∼ 140 Hz) SEEG activity was treated as an electrophysiological measure. A word form effect was found in eight left brain regions (i.e., the inferior parietal lobe, insula, fusiform, inferior temporal, middle temporal, middle occipital, precentral and postcentral gyri) from 50 ms poststimulus onset, while a lexical effect was observed in five left brain regions (i.e., the calcarine, middle temporal, superior temporal, precentral and postcentral gyri) from 100 ms poststimulus onset. The two effects overlapped in the precentral (300 ∼ 500 ms) and postcentral (100 ∼ 200 ms and 250 ∼ 600 ms) gyri. Moreover, high-level regions provide early feedback to word form regions. These results demonstrate that lexical processing occurs early and modulates word form recognition, providing vital supportive evidence for interactive theory.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENTA pivotal unresolved dispute in the field of word processing is whether word form recognition is obligatorily modulated by high-level lexical top-down information. To address this issue, we applied intracranial stereoelectroencephalography (SEEG) to 33 adults with epilepsy, to precisely delineate the spatiotemporal dynamics between processing word form and lexical information during visual word recognition. We observed that lexical processing occurred from 100 ms poststimulus presentation and even spatiotemporally overlapped with word form processing. Moreover, the high-order regions provided feedback to the word form regions in the early stage of word recognition. These results revealed the crucial role of high-level lexical information in word form recognition, deepening our understanding of the functional coupling among brain regions in word processing networks.

Superiority of blind over sighted listeners in voice recognition.

The current study examined whether the blind are superior to sighted listeners in voice recognition. Three subject groups, including 17 congenitally blind, 18 late blind, and 18 sighted, showed no significant differences in the immediate voice recognition test. In the delayed test conducted two weeks later, however, both congenitally blind and late blind groups performed better than the sighted with no significant difference between the two blind groups. These results partly confirmed the anecdotal observation about the blind's superiority in voice recognition, which resides mainly in delayed memory phase but not in immediate recall and generalization phase.