垂直呈现的汉字顺序加工机制

Processing Mechanism of Chinese Characters Presented Vertically

摘要: 目的：本研究利用中文文本特性，考察了在垂直阅读的双字词中，汉字位置信息在中央凹视野中是否得到加工以及是怎样加工的，垂直呈现的中文双字词是否具有汉字转置效应。研究方法：我们使用了词汇掩蔽启动决定任务，该任务的反应时指标体现了启动刺激在中央凹视野如何激活靶子刺激。我们选择两种不同类型的双字词：单纯词和合成词。三种类型的刺激作为启动条件：相同条件，转置条件和替换条件。启动刺激或与靶子词相同(相同条件)，或是靶子词的汉字转置非词(转置条件)，或是靶子词的汉字替换非词(替换条件)。结果：替换条件的正确率显著低于转置条件；替换条件的反应时显著长于转置条件，词类型和启动条件的交互作用不显著。因此，在垂直呈现的中文词汇识别过程中，存在明显的汉字转置效应。另外，在反应时上未发现词类型和启动条件存在交互作用。两种类型的双字词汉字顺序编码模式相似。结论：在垂直呈现下的汉字位置加工中发现了明显的转置启动效应。在文本垂直呈现时，中文双字词汉字顺序信息在中央凹视野中得到编码，汉字顺序编码十分灵活。这就说明虽然垂直呈现的中文词汇并不符合我们的阅读习惯，但人脑能够将呈现的汉字组转化为抽象的顺序编码，与方向无关。

Abstract: Objective: Given characteristics of Chinese vertical text, this study examines whether Chinese character order information is processed in the foveal vision and how it is processed for two-character words that are read vertically. Whether transposed-character effects exist for Chinese two-character words displayed vertically has been tested. Research method: We used a masked priming paradigm, and the task’s response time indicator reflects how activation of the stimulus in the foveal vision activates the target stimulus. Simple words and compound words were chosen as two types of targets. Three types of stimuli used as priming conditions: identity, transposition and replacement conditions. The prime was identical to the target word (identity condition), a transposition of the two characters of the target word (transposed-character condition, TC condition) or two characters that were different from the characters in the target word (substituted-character condition, SC condition). Results: The results showed that response latencies in the lexical decision task on the target word region were longer in the SC condition than the TC condition, which were respectively longer than in the identity condition. The interaction between word type and priming condition is not significant. Therefore, transposed-character effects occurred in Chinese reading vertically. In addition, there was no interaction between the word type and the activation condition at the reaction time. The pattern of character order encoding for two types of two-character words is similar. Conclusions: It was obvious that the transposed-character effect was found letter position encoding when charac-ters were displayed vertically. When the text is vertically displayed, transposed-character effects occurred in Chinese reading, and the Chinese character position encoding is very flexible. The study shows that although the vertical presentation of the Chinese vocabulary does not meet our reading habits, the human brain can translate the convert words into abstract sequential codes, independent of orientation.