GRAPHIC AND PHONOLOGICAL PROCESSING IN CHINESE CHARACTER IDENTIFICATION

A backward-masking procedure was used to examine the effect of graphic , phonological, and graphic-and-phonological information on Chinese ch aracter identification. Twenty-two Mandarin-speaking Taiwanese graduat e students were asked to write down lists of paired characters present ed sequentially in a tachistoscope. Analysis of variance performed on the target identification accuracy scores indicated that graphic infor mation plays an essential role in Chinese character identification. Wi thin the same time frame, phonological information, whether activated alone or in conjunction with graphic information, does not enhance the accuracy of identification. The present findings are discussed in rel ation to those of Perfetti and Zhang's (1991) Chinese character study and Perfetti, Bell, and Delaney's (1988) English word study.