Whole word, frequency-general phonology in semantic processing of Chinese characters

Two experiments were conducted to examine the locus of the phonological and semantic interference effects in Chinese reported by C. A. Perfetti and S. Zhang (1995a). Both experiments found that phonological effects in semanti c judgments were general across word frequency and independent of component phonology, thus localizing phonological interference at the whole-characte r level. However, effects of component phonology were obtained for low-freq uency characters when pronunciation judgments were made. The results are co nsistent with the assumption that phonology is activated at 2 levels in Chi nese reading, 1 at the whole character level and 1 at the phonetic componen t level. A strong semantic interference was also found in both experiments, implying that both phonology and semantics are automatically activated. Th e constituency model provides a framework to explain the pervasive word-lev el phonology seen across writing systems.