1. Exp. 3: priming effect of semantic radical transparency 64 real-word targets; 64 foil trails; 128 psudo-word targets Procedures: same as Exp. 1 Results: Exp. 4: priming effect of semantic radical combinability 96 low-frequency, real-word targets; 48 foil trails; 144 psudo-word targets Procedures and results: Exp. 5: character orthography vs. radical function 45 high-frequency, real-word targets; 45 foil trails; 90 psudo-word targets Procedures: same as exp. 4 Results: General discussion Semantic radical combinability is not a significant factor on character identification, neither is semantic radical processed pre-lexically. The presence of a shared semantic radical do influence target recognition, but the direction of priming effect is orthographic inhibition instead of semantic facilitation. Only when a semantic radical of both prime and target characters is at the same position, orthographic inhibition effect happens. The orthographic inhibition effect might be explained as a neighborhood size effect. Competition happens when the prime and the target share a same radical, no matter what function the radical possesses as a semantic component or a phonetic component. To conclude, first, semantic radicals do not play an important role on semantic process during character identification. Second, inhibitory priming effect is caused by high neighborhood size. It means that the more candidate neighbor characters sharing with a same component are the difficult a subject could pick up from amongst them. The role of semantic radicals on Chinese character recognition Hsi-Chun Yang Jei-Tun Wu Department of Psychology, NTU Introduction Features of Chinese semantic radicals: most semantic radicals can be used as characters with their own pronunciation and meaning ( 手 ), but some are not actual characters ( 扌 ) most semantic radicals have their own fixed or typical position in a character ( 手 in bottom, 扌 in left) transparent vs. opaque ( 河 vs. 淑 ) Some investigators (Feldman & Siok, 1997; Feldman & Siok, 1999; Li & Chen, 1999) suggested Chinese semantic radicals play an important role during the course of character identification. Semantic facilitation effect was found in these previous studies, and the effect was thought to be due to the pre-lexical process. On the issue of orthographic neighbors, in English, researchers have found orthographic facilitation effect in real word recognition, but found inhibition effect in psudo-word recognition (Andrews, 1997, for a review). In Chinese, a previous study demonstrated that priming with orthographically similar characters inhibits recognition and naming of targets (Wu & Chen, 2003). Goal of the study Do Chinese character semantic radicals play roles on pre-lexical processing or just are components of character orthography ? Experiments: priming lexical decision task Exp. 1: replicating the experiment of Feldman & Siok (1999) 80 real-word targets; 80 foil trails; 160 psudo-word targets Procedures: Results: Exp. 2: priming effect of semantic radical with different position 64 real-word targets; 64 foil trails; 128 psudo-word targets Procedures: same as Exp. 1 Results: Note: +: same; -: different; R: semantic radical; S: semantic; F: target frequency; ***: p < 0.001; ***: p < 0.05; ω 2 : partial omega square primes targets within subjects within items R+S+R+S-R-S+R-S- within subjects between items H/H 花草莊卉卒 H/L 髮髻鬆辮繆 L/H 傭僕偽婢娓 L/L 缽罈缺碗研 primes targets within subjects within items R+S+R+S-R-S+R-S- within subjects between items HF 提拿摹取軒 LF 蛀蝕融啃勃 By subject analysis of RT primes targets within subjects within items S+T+S+T-S-T+S-T- within subjects between items HF 提取吊轅軒 LF 蛀啃侵勁勃 primes targets within subjects within items O+R+O+R-control within subjects between items H/H 沐汝休依 H/L 沃沫妖栗 L/H 欽欣軟韓 L/L 彭彩鼓辟 Prime target O+R+O+R-control 家宕字萬 Exp. 4A Exp. 4B By subject analysis of RT Note: O: orthographic; R: semantic radical +: same; -: different; H: high; L: low; /: semantic radical combinability/phonetic radical type frequency By subject analysis of RT prime duration = 2 frames prime duration = 15 frames **: p < 0.01; ω 2 : partial omega square; P: prime types R: phonetic radical type frequency Note: O: orthographic; R: semantic radical; +: same; -: different ***: p < 0.001; ω 2 : partial omega square; P: prime types R: phonetic radical type frequency C: semantic radical combinability ***: p < 0.001; **: p < 0.01; ω 2 : partial omega square; T: transparency S: semantic F: target frequency Note: S: semantic; T: transparency; +: same; -: different; Note: H: high; L: low (target frequency/semantic radical combinability); R: semantic radical; S: semantic; +: similar; -: different; F: target frequency; C: semantic radical combinability; ***: p < 0.001; **: p < 0.01; ***: p < 0.05; ω 2 : partial omega square 1 frame = 16.7 ms