Do compound radicals exist as a unit of analysis in Chinese character recognition?

Abstract

This study investigated the presence of compound radical representations as a unit of analysis in Chinese character recognition. Native local Cantonese-speaking undergraduates were recruited as participants. For each of the freestanding and non-freestanding conditions, a masked priming lexical decision task was used in which target type (characters containing compound radical and characters containing simple radical), prime type (compound radicals and simple radicals) and prime durations (32 ms and 48 ms) were manipulated. Interaction between prime duration and prime-target relation did not reach significance for both conditions. The results suggest that compound radicals are not represented in the process of Chinese character recognition, despite of their common occurrence as phonetic radicals. However, the pattern of interaction between prime type and prime duration noted with stimuli containing non-freestanding radical motivates further research in the direction of the existence of compound radical representation. Implications for further study of Chinese character processing are discussed.