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Categorical perception of Chinese characters by simplified and traditional Chinese readers

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Abstract

Recent research has shown that the visual complexity of orthographies across writing systems influences the development of orthographic representations. Simplified and traditional Chinese characters are usually regarded as the most visually complicated writing systems currently in use, with the traditional system showing a higher level of complexity. However, it is still unclear whether and how learning two Chinese writing systems influences the processing of characters among simplified and traditional Chinese script readers. This study employed the categorical perception (CP) paradigm to examine adult Mainland China Chinese (MLC) simplified character readers and adult Hong Kong Chinese (HKC) traditional character readers’ liminal perception of the following types of morphing continua of “line characters” (with font features removed): the Absolute-Differentiation (AD) type, which contains a topological change, and the Relative-Differentiation type, which does not contain any topological change in visual configurations. The results showed evidence of CP effects on the two types of stimuli among MLC and HKC readers. Moreover, MLC and HKC readers presented major differences in perceiving AD-type stimuli, indicating that different experiences with two Chinese writing systems influence character perception. These findings extend previous results regarding the comparison of visual skills of simplified and traditional Chinese script readers and support the hypothesis that simplified Chinese script readers have higher visual discrimination rates than do traditional Chinese script readers in character perception.

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Acknowledgements

This study was partially supported by the General Research Fund of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Research Grants Council, awarded to Prof. William Shi Yuan Wang (Project No. 14611615). The authors thank all the participants. The authors also acknowledge the editor and reviewers for their constructive help in improving the paper. The first author also thanks Dr. James W. Minett for his insightful comments in the early stage of this study.

Funding

Funding was provided by General Research Fund of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Research Grants Council (Grant No. 14611615).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Hong Kong SAR, China

    Ruoxiao Yang & William Shi Yuan Wang

  2. Chinese University of Hong Kong, Sha Tin, Hong Kong SAR, China

    Ruoxiao Yang & William Shi Yuan Wang

  3. Hong Kong Shue Yan University, North Point, Hong Kong SAR, China

    Ruoxiao Yang

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  1. Ruoxiao Yang
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  2. William Shi Yuan Wang
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Correspondence to Ruoxiao Yang.

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Yang, R., Wang, W.S.Y. Categorical perception of Chinese characters by simplified and traditional Chinese readers. Read Writ 31, 1133–1154 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-018-9832-y

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