Work

Word length and frequency effects in natural Chinese reading: Evidence for character representations in lexical identification

Year: 2024

Type: article

Abstract: Word length and frequency are two of the "big three" factors that affect eye movements in natural reading. Although these factors have been extensively investigated, all previous studies manipulating word length have been confounded with changes in visual complexity (longer words have more letters and are more visually complex). We controlled stroke complexity across one-character (short) and two-character (long) high- and low-frequency Chinese words (to avoid complexity confounds) and recorded readers' eye movements during sentence reading. Both word length and frequency yielded strong main effects for fixation time measures. For saccadic targeting and skipping probability, word length effects, but not word frequency effects, occurred. Critically, the interaction was not significant regardless of stroke complexity, indicating that word length and frequency independently influence lexical identification and saccade target selection during Chinese reading. The results provide evidence for character-level representations during Chinese word recognition in natural reading.

Source: Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology

DOI: 10.1177/17470218241281798

Authors: Ying Fu, Simon P Liversedge, Xuejun Bai, Maleeha Moosa, Chuanli Zang

Institutions: Tianjin Normal University, Yancheng Teachers University, University of Lancashire

Language: English

Topic: Reading and Literacy Development

Subfield: Developmental and Educational Psychology

Field: Psychology

Domain: Social Sciences

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $3,450

Funders: China Scholarship Council, Economic and Social Research Council