Position specification of Chinese radicals - Data from RT and ERPs

Abstract

Previous investigation of spatial information of Chinese radicals in orthographic representation has reported conflicting findings (e.g. Ding, Peng, & Taft, 2004; Tsang & Chen, 2009). Differing from previous work, radical position information in this study is conceived in terms of relative frequencies across different positions in a character. A lexical decision task in a masked priming paradigm focusing on radicals with a preferred position was conducted. The prime was presented for 48ms or 96ms. It might share a radical with the target in the same or different positions. Moreover, the shared radical might appear in its preferred or non-preferred position in the target. Responses were significantly faster for the same than different position and for the long prime duration. Relevant ERP results revealed a marginally greater negativity elicited by radicals in their non-preferred position appearing in the same position as in the prime, compared with different position in N170, and greater positivity for the non-preferred than preferred position in P200, in long prime duration only. These findings suggest that spatial specification is an inherent feature of the radical and weighted according to relative frequency of occurrence.