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The effects of visual complexity for Japanese kanji processing with high and low frequencies

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Abstract

The present study investigated the effects of visual complexity for kanji processing by selecting target kanji from different stroke ranges of visually simple (2–6 strokes), medium (8–12 strokes), and complex (14–20 strokes) kanji with high and low frequencies. A kanji lexical decision task in Experiment 1 and a kanji naming task in Experiment 2 were administered to native Japanese speakers. Results of both experiments showed that visual complexity inhibited the processing of low-frequency kanji, whereas such consistent, inhibitory effects of visual complexity were not observed in the processing of high-frequency kanji. Kanji with medium complexity were processed faster than simple and complex kanji in high frequency.

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Notes

  1. Levene’s test rejected a homogeneous variance assumption in two kanji high and low frequency groups, so that a t test with no assumption of homogeneity of variance was used to analyze the data. This t test is marked by L and hereafter the same.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate School of Languages and Cultures, Nagoya University, Furo-cho, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya-shi, Aichi-ken, 464-8601, Japan

    Katsuo Tamaoka & Sachiko Kiyama

Authors
  1. Katsuo Tamaoka
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  2. Sachiko Kiyama
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Katsuo Tamaoka.

Appendices

Appendix 1

See Table 5.

Table 5 Target kanji list for correct ‘Yes’ responses
Full size table

Appendix 2

See Table 6.

Table 6 Pseudo kanji list for correct ‘No’ responses
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Tamaoka, K., Kiyama, S. The effects of visual complexity for Japanese kanji processing with high and low frequencies. Read Writ 26, 205–223 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-012-9363-x

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