Feedforward and feedback consistency effects in the lexical processing of Chinese

Abstract

This study investigated the feedforward and feedback consistency effects on lexical processing in Chinese using a cross-modality priming paradigm. This aimed for a better understanding on how the mapping between print and sound influence lexical processing in Chinese and its possible relationship to literacy development. Forty-eight university students were randomly assigned to print-to-sound or sound-to-print modality condition, and asked to perform in a prime-target relatedness judgment with stimuli presented in four different consistency conditions. Results demonstrated an inhibitory feedforward consistency effect and facilitative feedback consistency effect on the participants’ response rate and accuracy rate in both sound-to-print and print-to-sound modalities. Furthermore, the feedback consistency effect was stronger in the sound-to-print modality while feedforward consistency effect did not demonstrate modality effect. By considering the number of sharing radicals, neighborhood size and adopting a more natural design, the findings of consistency effects in this study and its relevance to previous research studies were discussed. Besides, the relative importance of the consistency effects revealed suggested that both feedforward and feedback consistency are important in skilled adult reads and could impact on literacy development.