1. Exploring Semantic Activation of Phonetic Radical in Chinese Character Recognition Hsuan-Yi, Lee & Jei-Tun, Wu Department of Psychology, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan Introduction ■ Based on the finding from primed character naming experiments, Zhou and Marslen-Wilson (1999) argued that the character as a whole and its embedding radicals are simultaneously processed during recognizing a character. ■ In previous studies (Zhou and Marslen-Wilson, 1999), the semantic priming effect of phonetic radical may be induced by radical prime condition. The question must be resolved. ■ By the way, if the phenomenon was true, the same effect should be observed in the LDT task. (Correspondence: jtwu@ntu.edu.tw) Acknowledgement This study is partly supported by National Science Council, Taiwan.( NSC93-2413-H-002-001 ) Table1. Character decision latencies (response times [RTs]; in miliseconds) and Error Rates (in percentages) in EXP 1. NamingLDT Prime type SOA Target word frequency Radical Compoun d ControlRadicalCompoundControl 50msHigh RT446455458449462463 Error Rate (2.82)(3.21)(3.76)(1.38)(2.11)(3.26) Low RT543571584556586596 Error Rate (6.91)(6.45)(7.72)(4.31)(5.14)(6.58) 200msHigh RT434441449440453464 Error Rate (0.00)(0.93)(1.20)(0.49)(0.76)(0.49) Low RT525549574536549589 Error Rate (6.25)(7.15)(6.54)(6.12)(7.83)(6.56) Table2. Character decision latencies (response times [RTs]; in miliseconds) and Error Rates (in percentages) in EXP 2. NamingLDT Prime type SOA Target word frequency CompoundControlCompoundControl 50msHigh RT457449459468 Error Rate (1.65)(1.69)(0.98)(0.48) Low RT584590568588 Error Rate (5.36)(6.01)(8.52) 200msHigh RT431436434435 Error Rate (1.22)(2.35)(0.78)(0.63) Low RT549557555574 Error Rate (6.98)(6.33)(8.18)(8.91) Blue word: tendency ; yellow word: p <.05 ; red word: p <.01. Exp 2 Participants In the Exp, 105 National Taiwan University students who were native Chinese speakers participated (28 in 50msSOA Naming, 28 in 200msSOA Naming, 24 in 50msSOA LDT, 25 in 200msSOA LDT). Exp 1 Participants In the Exp 1, 105 National Taiwan University students who were native Chinese speakers participated (26 in 50msSOA Naming, 29 in 200msSOA Naming, 25 in 50msSOA LDT, 25 in 200msSOA LDT). Design & materials ■ The design was a 2(target word frequency) x 2(SOA, 50ms and 200ms) x 3(priming condition), with all three factors being within- subjects. ■ There are 3 priming conditions （ radical phonetic, compound word, & control ） as designed in Zhou and Marslen-Wilson (1999). Procedure Primed naming and Primed LDT. Result ■ Semantic priming effect of phonetic radical was observed in LDT, not in Naming （ but had a tendency of priming ）. ■ There were no differences of priming between different SOA. Design & materials The same with Exp 1, except the radical prime condition was removed. Procedure The Same as Exp 1. Result ■ A weak semantic priming effect of phonetic radical was observed in LDT, while none was found in Naming （ no tendency ）. ■ No difference of priming effects between different SOA was observed. General discussion ■ Semantic priming effect of phonetic radical was easily observed in LDT, indicating radical processing was easily induced in LDT. ■ In naming, semantic priming effect of phonetic radical was not so reliably observed as shown by Zhou and Marslen-Wilson (1999).The effect may be not automatic.