Qingfang Zhang

Masked Syllable Priming Effects in Word and Picture Naming in Chinese

Four experiments investigated the role of the syllable in Chinese spoken word production. Chen, Chen and Ferrand (2003) reported a syllable priming effect when primes and targets shared the first syllable using a masked priming paradigm in Chinese. Our Experiment 1 was a direct replication of Chen et al.’s (2003) Experiment 3 employing CV (e.g., 拔营,/ba2.ying2/, strike camp) and CVG (e.g., 白首,/bai2.shou3/, white haired) syllable types. Experiment 2 tested the syllable priming effect using different syllable types: e.g., CV (气球,/qi4.qiu2/, balloon) and CVN (蜻蜓,/qing1.ting2/, dragonfly). Experiment 3 investigated this issue further using line drawings of common objects as targets that were preceded either by a CV (e.g., 企,/qi3/, attempt), or a CVN (e.g., 情,/qing2/, affection) prime. Experiment 4 further examined the priming effect by a comparison between CV or CVN priming and an unrelated priming condition using CV-NX (e.g., 迷你,/mi2.ni3/, mini) and CVN-CX (e.g., 民居,/min2.ju1/, dwellings) as target words. These four experiments consistently found that CV targets were named faster when preceded by CV primes than when they were preceded by CVG, CVN or unrelated primes, whereas CVG or CVN targets showed the reverse pattern. These results indicate that the priming effect critically depends on the match between the structure of the prime and that of the first syllable of the target. The effect obtained in this study was consistent across different stimuli and different tasks (word and picture naming), and provides more conclusive and consistent data regarding the role of the syllable in Chinese speech production.

Impact of phonology on the generation of handwritten responses: Evidence from picture-word interference tasks

State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China The degree to which phonological codes constrain handwriting is at present controversial. Two experiments used a picture-word interference paradigm in which participants wrote down the names of pictures while attempting to ignore visual distractor words presented at various time intervals (SOAs). Distractors could be orthographically and phonologically related, orthographically related only, or unrelated. We found an exclusive effect of phonology at an early SOA, and orthographic priming at a later SOA. In a second experiment, we showed that the effect of phonology was diminished when writers engaged in concurrent articulatory suppression. The results suggest a role of phonology in the generation of handwritten words that is to some extent dependent on situational circumstances.

Phonology Contributes to Writing Evidence From Written Word Production in a Nonalphabetic Script

Is the production of written words affected by their phonological properties? Most researchers agree that orthographic codes can be accessed directly from meaning, but the contribution of phonological codes to written word production remains controversial, mainly because studies have focused on languages with alphabetic scripts, and it is difficult to dissociate sound from spelling in such languages. We report results from a picture-word interference task in which Chinese participants wrote the names of pictures while attempting to ignore written distractor words. On some trials, the distractors were phonologically and orthographically related to the picture names; on other trials, the distractors were only phonologically related to the picture names; and on still other trials, the distractors and picture names were unrelated. Priming effects were found for both types of related distractors relative to unrelated distractors. This result constitutes clear evidence that phonological properties constrain orthographic output. Additionally, the results speak to the nature of Chinese orthography, suggesting subsemantic correspondences between sound and spelling.

Independent Effects of Orthographic and Phonological Facilitation on Spoken Word Production in Mandarin.

A picture—word interference paradigm with visually presented distractors was used to investigate the independent effects of orthographic and phonological facilitation on Mandarin monosyllabic word production. Both the stimulus-onset asynchrony (SOA) and the picture—word relationship along different lexical dimensions were varied. We observed a pure orthographic facilitation effect and a pure phonological facilitation effect, and found that the patterns of orthographic and phonological facilitation were different. Of most interest, the additive effects of orthographic and phonological facilitation at —150-ms and 0-ms SOAs indicated that the orthographic effect was largely independent of the phonological effect on spoken picture naming. We argue that the present findings are useful for constraining theoretical models of language production and contend that theoretical models of word production need to consider independent effects of orthography and phonology on picture naming, at least in Chinese.

Orthographic facilitation effects on spoken word production: Evidence from Chinese

The aim of this experiment was to investigate the time course of orthographic facilitation on picture naming in Chinese. We used a picture-word paradigm to investigate orthographic and phonological facilitation on monosyllabic spoken word production in native Mandarin speakers. Both the stimulus-onset asynchrony (SOA) and the picture-word relationship were varied along different lexical dimensions including measures of orthographic similarity between the distractor and the target and measures of phonological similarity between the distractor and target. Results showed independent effects of orthographic and phonological facilitation that varied across SOA. Specifically, orthographic facilitation was observed prior to phonological facilitation. We argue that theoretical models of spoken word production need to explain the independent effects of orthography on picture naming in Chinese as well as the variable time course. The implication of orthographic facilitation effects on speech production in other languages is also discussed.

The Proximate Phonological Unit of Chinese-English Bilinguals: Proficiency Matters

An essential step to create phonology according to the language production model by Levelt, Roelofs and Meyer is to assemble phonemes into a metrical frame. However, recently, it has been proposed that different languages may rely on different grain sizes of phonological units to construct phonology. For instance, it has been proposed that, instead of phonemes, Mandarin Chinese uses syllables and Japanese uses moras to fill the metrical frame. In this study, we used a masked priming-naming task to investigate how bilinguals assemble their phonology for each language when the two languages differ in grain size. Highly proficient Mandarin Chinese-English bilinguals showed a significant masked onset priming effect in English (L2), and a significant masked syllabic priming effect in Mandarin Chinese (L1). These results suggest that their proximate unit is phonemic in L2 (English), and that bilinguals may use different phonological units depending on the language that is being processed. Additionally, under some conditions, a significant sub-syllabic priming effect was observed even in Mandarin Chinese, which indicates that L2 phonology exerts influences on L1 target processing as a consequence of having a good command of English.

The time course of segment and tone encoding in Chinese spoken production: an event-related potential study

The present study investigated the time course of segment and tone encoding in Chinese spoken production with an event-related brain potentials (ERPs) experiment. Native Chinese speakers viewed a series of pictures and made Go/noGo decisions along dimensions of segmental onset or tone information of picture names. Behavioral data and onset latency of the N200 effect indicated that segmental information became available prior to tonal information. Moreover, the results of scalp distributions and onset latency patterns of the N200 effect on segmental and tonal decisions suggest that segmental and metrical encoding is relatively disassociated in Chinese spoken production. Our findings provide additional evidence from Chinese as a kind of non-alphabetic language concerning theories of phonological encoding based on alphabetic languages.

Seriality of semantic and phonological processes during overt speech in Mandarin as revealed by event-related brain potentials

How is information transmitted across semantic and phonological levels in spoken word production? Recent evidence from speakers of Western languages such as English and Dutch suggests non-discrete transmission, but it is not clear whether this view can be generalized to other languages such as Mandarin, given potential differences in phonological encoding across languages. The present study used Mandarin speakers and combined a behavioral picture-word interference task with event-related potentials. The design factorially crossed semantic and phonological relatedness. Results showed semantic and phonological effects both in behavioral and electrophysiological measurements, with statistical additivity in latencies, and discrete time signatures (250-450 ms and 450-600 ms after picture onset for the semantic and phonological condition, respectively). Overall, results suggest that in Mandarin spoken production, information is transmitted from semantic to phonological levels in a sequential fashion. Hence, temporal signatures associated with spoken word production might differ depending on target language.

Electrophysiological estimates of the time course of tonal and orthographic encoding in Chinese speech production.

Recent electrophysiological studies have investigated the time course of semantic, syntactic, and phonological encoding in European language spoken production, such as English or Dutch. The present study investigated the time course of tonal and orthographic encoding during Chinese word production. Participants were shown pictures and carried out a dual-choice Go/noGo decision based on tonal information (whether a picture name was tone 1 or 2, or tone 3 or 4) or orthographic information (whether or not the picture name was written with a left-right structure character). Analyses of N200 effects and LRPs (lateralized readiness potentials) indicated that tonal information was retrieved prior to orthographic information. These results imply that orthographic codes are unlikely to contribute to phonological encoding in spoken word production. Furthermore, a late effect for the N200 in the Go/noGo=tone condition was observed, which may be related to internal self-monitoring of suprasegmental information.

The time course of semantic and orthographic encoding in Chinese word production: An event-related potential study

Previous studies have shown that access to conceptual/semantic information precedes phonological access in alphabetic language production such as English or Dutch. The present study investigated the time course of semantic and orthographic encoding in Chinese (a non-alphabetic language) spoken word production. Participants were shown pictures and carried out a dual-choice go/nogo task based on semantic information and orthographic information. The results of the N200 (related to response inhibition) and LRP (related to response preparation) indicated that semantic access preceded orthographic encoding by 176-202 ms. The different patterns of the two N200 effects suggest that they may tap into different processes. The N200 and LRP analyses also indicate that accessing the orthographic representation in speaking is likely optional and depends on specific task requirement.