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Homophonic context effects when naming Japanese kanji: Evidence for processing costs

  • Rinus G. Verdonschot
  • , Wido L. Heij
  • , Daniela Paolieri
  • , Qingfang Zhang
  • , Niels O. Schiller

Research output: Journal Publications and ReviewsRGC 21 - Publication in refereed journalpeer-review

Abstract

The current study investigated the effects of phonologically related context pictures on the naming latencies of target words in Japanese and Chinese. Reading bare words in alphabetic languages has been shown to be rather immune to effects of context stimuli, even when these stimuli are presented in advance of the target word (e.g., Glaser & Düngelhoff, 1984; Roelofs, 2003). However, recently, semantic context effects of distractor pictures on the naming latencies of Japanese kanji (but not Chinese hànzì) words have been observed (Verdonschot, La Heij, & Schiller, 2010). In the present study, we further investigated this issue using phonologically related (i.e., homophonic) context pictures when naming target words in either Chinese or Japanese. We found that pronouncing bare nouns in Japanese is sensitive to phonologically related context pictures, whereas this is not the case in Chinese. The difference between these two languages is attributed to processing costs caused by multiple pronunciations for Japanese kanji. © 2011 The Experimental Psychology Society.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1836-1849
JournalQuarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology
Volume64
Issue number9
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Sept 2011
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

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Research Keywords

  • Chinese hànzì
  • Japanese kanji
  • Language production
  • Phonological context effects
  • Reading aloud

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