THE TONGUE-TWISTER EFFECT IN READING CHINESE

Two studies demonstrate a visual tongue-twister effect (TTE) in Chines e and add support to the assumption that reading in any writing system engages a phonological memory system. Experiment 1 showed that for bo th oral and silent reading, subjects took longer to read texts with re peated initial phonemes (IPs) than to read control stories with mixed IPs. Experiment 2 verified the phonemic nature of the TTE in a dual ta sk situation in which subjects had to retain a string of digits while reading a sentence. The results showed a specific-phoneme interference such that subjects took longer to read the texts when digits and word s had the same IPs than when they had different phonemes. Both studies provide evidence that the source of the TTE in both Chinese and Engli sh is phonological interference rather than visual confusion. They con firm the highly general nature of phonological involvement in skilled sentence reading.