Seriality of semantic and phonological processes during overt speech in Mandarin as revealed by event-related brain potentials

Facilitation effect of token syllable frequency in Chinese spoken word production

Syllable frequency effects in spoken word production have been interpreted as evidence that speakers store syllable-sized motor programmes for phonetic encoding in alphabetic languages such as English or Dutch. However, the cognitive mechanism underlying the syllable frequency effect in Chinese spoken word production remains unknown. To investigate the locus of the syllable frequency effect in spoken Chinese, this study used a picture-word interference (PWI) task in which participants were asked to name the picture while ignoring the distractor word. The design included two variables: the syllable frequency of the target words (high vs. low) and the phonological relationships between distractor and target words (shared atonic syllable or not; related vs. unrelated). We manipulated mixed token and type syllable frequency in Experiment 1, and token syllable frequency but controlled type syllable frequency in Experiment 2. The results showed a facilitation effect of mixed syllable frequency and a similar facilitation effect of token syllable frequency. Importantly, the syllable frequency effect was found to be independent of the phonological facilitation effect. These results suggest that token syllable frequency played a dominant role in the observed facilitation effect, providing evidence that the syllable frequency effect arises in the phonetic encoding of Chinese spoken word production.

The influence of induced moods on aging of phonological encoding in spoken word production: an ERP study

This study investigated the influence of induced mood on the phonological encoding involved in Chinese spoken word production with a picture-word inference task while concurrently recorded electrophysiological signals. In the experiment, young and older participants watched videos for inducing positive, negative, or neutral mood, and then they were instructed to name target picture while ignoring phonologically related or unrelated distractor words. A phonological facilitation effect was observed in young adults but not in older adults, suggesting an age-related decline of phonological encoding. Both groups showed an inhibition effect in negative mood but not in positive mood, suggesting that speakers have different processing styles in different moods. ERP data revealed a phonological effect around the time window of 250-350 ms in both groups. Meanwhile, young adults showed a phonological effect around 350-450 ms in negative mood and positive mood which may reflect self-monitoring in speech production. We suggest that the former effect may reflect phonological encoding while the latter reflects self-monitoring of internal syllables or phonemes. Furthermore, induced moods influence the phonological effect in older and young adults differently. Behavioral and ERP results provide consistent evidence for the aging decline of phonological encoding in spoken word production.

Effects of age on the time course of syntactic priming in Chinese sentence production: an ERP study

Using a syntactic priming task, we investigated the time course of syntactic encoding in Chinese sentence production and compared encoding patterns between younger and older adults. Participants alternately read sentence descriptions and overtly described pictures, while event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded. We manipulated the abstract prime structure (active or passive) as well as the lexical overlap of the prime and the target (verb overlap or no overlap). The syntactic choice results replicated classical abstract priming and lexical boost effects in both younger and older adults. However, when production latency was taken into account, the speed benefit from syntactic repetition differed between the two age groups. Meanwhile, preferred priming facilitated production in both age groups, whereas nonpreferred priming inhibited production in the older group. For electroencephalography, an earlier effect of syntactic repetition and a later effect of lexical overlap showed a two-stage pattern of syntactic encoding. Older adults also showed a more delayed and interactive encoding pattern than younger adults, indicating a greater reliance on lexical information. These results are illustrative of the two-stage competition and residual activation models.

Multiple phonological activation in writing: evidence for cascadedness in Chinese written verb production

The dynamics of information transmission through the lexical system during written word production remain underspecified. Existing studies largely come from noun production, relatively less work has explored verb production. Verbs, representing actions or states, are considered more abstract and are found to be more challenging to be produced. The present study investigated phonological involvement and the principles governing information flow during Chinese written verb production. Participants wrote down single verbs and verb phrases while ignoring phonologically related, or unrelated distractor pictures. Results revealed phonological facilitation effects on writing latencies from phonologically related distractors in the verb phrase generation. Findings provide novel chronometric evidence that information transmission during written production involves cascaded activation allowing multiple phonological codes to be activated prior to written output. This phonological facilitation effect signifies the influence of phonology, especially lexical phonology, has been underestimated in writing.

Tonal and syllabic encoding in overt Cantonese Chinese speech production: An ERP study

This study was conducted to investigate how syllables and lexical tones are processed in Cantonese speech production using the picture-word interference task with concurrent recording of event-related brain potentials (ERPs). Cantonese-speaking participants were asked to name aloud individually presented pictures and ignore an accompanying auditory word distractor. The target and distractor either shared the same word-initial syllable with the same tone (Tonal-Syllable related), the same word-initial syllable without the same tone (Atonal-Syllable related), the same tone only (Tone alone related), or were phonologically unrelated. Participants' naming responses were faster, relative to an unrelated control, when the target and distractor shared the same tonal- or atonal-syllable but null effect was found in the Tone alone related condition. The mean ERP amplitudes (per each 100-ms time window) were subjected to stimulus-locked (i.e., time-locked to stimulus onset) and response-locked (i.e., time-locked to response onset) analyses. Significant differences between related and unrelated ERP waves were similarly observed in both Tonal-Syllable related and Atonal-Syllable related conditions in the time window of 400-500 ms post-stimulus. However, distinct ERP effects were observed in these two phonological conditions within the 500-ms pre-response period. In addition, null effects were found in the Tone alone related condition in both stimulus-locked and response-locked analyses. These results suggest that in Cantonese spoken word production, the atonal syllable of the target is retrieved first and then associated with the target lexical tone, consistent with the view that tone has an important role to play at a late stage of phonological encoding in tonal language production.

The multiple phonological activation in Chinese spoken word production: An ERP study supporting cascaded model

A central issue in spoken word production concerns how activation is transmitted from semantic to phonological levels. The current study investigated the issue of seriality and cascadedness in Chinese spoken word production, via the combined semantic blocked paradigm (with homogeneous and heterogeneous blocks) and picture-word interference paradigm (with phonologically related, mediated and unrelated distractors). Naming latencies data showed a mediated effect via comparing mediated and unrelated distractors in homogeneous blocks, a phonological facilitation effect via comparing phonologically related and unrelated distractors in homogeneous and heterogeneous blocks, and a semantic interference effect via comparing homogeneous and heterogeneous blocks. Critically, cluster-based permutation test of ERP data demonstrated a mediated effect around 266-326ms and an overlapped pattern of semantic interference effect around 264-418ms and phonological facilitation effect around 210-310ms in homogeneous or around 236-316ms in heterogeneous blocks. These findings indicated that speakers activate phonological nodes of non-targets, and present a cascadedness pattern of the transmission from semantics to phonology in Chinese spoken production. The present study sheds new insight on the neural correlates of semantic and phonological effects, and provides behavioral and electrophysiological evidences for the cascaded model within a theoretical framework of lexical competition in speech production.

Lexical Access in Preschool Mandarin-Speaking Children With Cochlear Implants

PURPOSE

Children with cochlear implants (CIs) have less experience accessing spoken language. Mandarin Chinese uses pitch information to contrast word meaning, and the signal that the CI devices provide is degraded. Thus, Mandarin-speaking children with CIs may face more challenges in the development of language skills. This study examines preschool Mandarin-speaking children's performance in lexical access. We hypothesized that children with CIs and their peers with normal hearing (NH) have comparable naming ability, but they process phonological or semantic information differently.

METHOD

Twenty children with CIs and 20 age-matched children with NH were tested. The cross-modal visual-auditory picture-word interference paradigm was applied. The distractor was either phonologically related (mao⁵⁵ cat -mao⁵¹ hat), semantically related (mao⁵⁵ cat -shu²¹⁴ mouse) or unrelated (mao⁵⁵ cat -zhi²¹⁴ paper) to the target, and it was aurally presented at four different points in time relative to the picture. Accuracy was compared between the two groups to tap into the children's naming abilities, and reaction time was analyzed to examine the effects of phonological and semantic information.

RESULTS

No group difference in accuracy was found. The phonologically related distractors led to significantly higher accuracy scores and shorter reaction times, whereas the semantically related distractors did not. Unlike the NH group, the CI group did not respond significantly faster or slower in phonologically related condition when the distractor and picture occurred simultaneously. Finally, the CI group made overall quicker responses than the NH group.

CONCLUSIONS

Children with CIs are as successful as children with NH in word retrieval and production, and the two groups both show phonological priming effect and lack semantic effect. However, children with CIs do not process phonological information as early as their NH peers, and they may be more tasks directed and hence make quicker responses.

The Inhibition Effect of Affordances in Action Picture Naming: An ERP Study

How quickly are different kinds of conceptual knowledge activated in action picture naming? Using a masked priming paradigm, we manipulated the prime category type (artificial vs. natural), prime action type (precision, power, vs. neutral grip), and target action type (precision vs. power grip) in action picture naming, while electrophysiological signals were measured concurrently. Naming latencies showed an inhibition effect in the congruent action type condition compared with the neutral condition. ERP results showed that artificial and natural category primes induced smaller waveforms in precision or power action primes than neutral primes in the time window of 100-200 msec. Time-frequency results consistently presented a power desynchronization of the mu rhythm in the time window of 0-210 msec with precision action type artificial objects compared with neutral primes, which localized at the supplementary motor, precentral and postcentral areas in the left hemisphere. These findings suggest an inhibitory effect of affordances arising at conceptual preparation in action picture naming and provide evidence for embodied cognition.

Word Distance Affects Subjective Temporal Distance

The kappa effect is a well-reported phenomenon in which spatial distance between discrete stimuli affects the perception of temporal distance demarcated by the corresponding stimuli. Here, we report a new phenomenon that we propose to designate as the lexical kappa effect in which word distance, a non-magnitude relationship of discrete stimuli that exists in the lexical space of the mental lexicon, affects the perception of temporal distance. A temporal bisection task was used to assess the subjective perception of the time interval demarcated by two successively presented words. Word distance was manipulated by varying the semantic (Experiment 1) or phonological (Experiment 2) similarity between the two words. Results showed that the temporal distance between the two words was perceived to be shorter when the corresponding two words were lexically closer. We explain this effect within the internal clock framework by assuming faster detection of the word that terminated timing when it is preceded by a semantically or phonologically similar word.

The dissociation between age of acquisition and word frequency effects in Chinese spoken picture naming

This study aimed to examine the locus of age of acquisition (AoA) and word frequency (WF) effects in Chinese spoken picture naming, using a picture-word interference task. We conducted four experiments manipulating the properties of picture names (AoA in Experiments 1 and 2, while controlling WF; and WF in Experiments 3 and 4, while controlling AoA), and the relations between distractors and targets (semantic or phonological relatedness). Both Experiments 1 and 2 demonstrated AoA effects in picture naming; pictures of early acquired concepts were named faster than those acquired later. There was an interaction between AoA and semantic relatedness, but not between AoA and phonological relatedness, suggesting localisation of AoA effects at the stage of lexical access in picture naming. Experiments 3 and 4 demonstrated WF effects: pictures of high-frequency concepts were named faster than those of low-frequency concepts. WF interacted with both phonological and semantic relatedness, suggesting localisation of WF effects at multiple levels of picture naming, including lexical access and phonological encoding. Our findings show that AoA and WF effects exist in Chinese spoken word production and may arise at related processes of lexical selection.

First Language Attrition: What It Is, What It Isn't, and What It Can Be

This review aims at clarifying the concept of first language attrition by tracing its limits, identifying its phenomenological and contextual constraints, discussing controversies associated with its definition, and suggesting potential directions for future research. We start by reviewing different definitions of attrition as well as associated inconsistencies. We then discuss the underlying mechanisms of first language attrition and review available evidence supporting different background hypotheses. Finally, we attempt to provide the groundwork to build a unified theoretical framework allowing for generalizable results. To this end, we suggest the deployment of a rigorous neuroscientific approach, in search of neural markers of first language attrition in different linguistic domains, putting forward hypothetical experimental ways to identify attrition's neural traces and formulating predictions for each of the proposed experimental paradigms.

Classifiers in Mandarin Chinese: Behavioral and electrophysiological evidence regarding their representation and processing

In Chinese, when objects are named with their quantity, a numeral classifier must be inserted between the quantifier and the noun to produce a grammatically correct quantifier + classifier + noun phrase. In this study, we adopted the picture-word interference paradigm to examine participants' naming latencies for multiple objects and their electroencephalogram in four conditions by manipulating two factors, i.e. semantic relatedness and classifier congruency. Results show that in noun phrase production, naming latencies are significantly longer in classifier-incongruent and semantically related conditions than in classifier-congruent and semantically unrelated conditions. Also, an N400-like effect was observed and found to be stronger in classifier-incongruent and semantically unrelated conditions. Together, the behavioral data and event-related potential analyses suggest that the use of classifiers as lexico-syntactic features in Mandarin Chinese takes place via a competitive selection process in noun phrase production.

Morphological facilitation and semantic interference in compound production: An ERP study

This study investigates the production of nominal compounds (Experiment 1) and simple nouns (Experiment 2) in a picture-word interference (PWI) paradigm to test models of morpho-lexical representation and processing. The continuous electroencephalogram (EEG) was registered and event-related brain potentials [ERPs] were analyzed in addition to picture-naming latencies. Experiment 1 used morphologically and semantically related distractor words to tap into different pre-articulatory planning stages during compound production. Relative to unrelated distractors, naming was speeded when distractors corresponded to morphemes of the compound (sun or flower for the target sunflower), but slowed when distractors were from the same semantic category as the compound (tulip ➔ sunflower). Distractors from the same category as the compound's first constituent (moon ➔ sunflower) had no influence. The diverging effects for semantic and morphological distractors replicate results from earlier studies. ERPs revealed different effects of morphological and semantic distractors with an interesting time course: morphological effects had an earlier onset. Comparable to the naming latencies, no ERP effects were obtained for distractors from the same semantic category as the compound's first constituent. Experiment 2 investigated the effectiveness of the latter distractors, presenting them with pictures of the compounds' first constituents (e.g., moon ➔ sun). Interference was confirmed both behaviorally and in the ERPs, showing that the absence of an effect in Experiment 1 was not due to the materials used. Considering current models of speech production, the data are best explained by a cascading flow of activation throughout semantic, lexical and morpho-phonological steps of speech planning.

Parallel Processing of Semantics and Phonology in Spoken Production: Evidence from Blocked Cyclic Picture Naming and EEG

Spoken language production involves lexical-semantic access and phonological encoding. A theoretically important question concerns the relative time course of these two cognitive processes. The predominant view has been that semantic and phonological codes are accessed in successive stages. However, recent evidence seems difficult to reconcile with a sequential view but rather suggests that both types of codes are accessed in parallel. Here, we used ERPs combined with the "blocked cyclic naming paradigm" in which items overlapped either semantically or phonologically. Behaviorally, both semantic and phonological overlap caused interference relative to unrelated baseline conditions. Crucially, ERP data demonstrated that the semantic and phonological effects emerged at a similar latency (∼180 msec after picture onset) and within a similar time window (180-380 msec). These findings suggest that access to phonological information takes place at a relatively early stage during spoken planning, largely in parallel with semantic processing.

Language proficiency moderates the effect of L2 semantically related distractors in L2 spoken word production

Bilinguals differ substantially in their second language (L2) proficiency, but it remains unclear whether language proficiency modulates the effect of L2 semantically related distractors in L2 spoken word production. In the present study, two groups of high proficiency and low proficiency Chinese-English bilinguals named target pictures in their L2 accompanied by visually superimposed L2 distractor words while electroencephalogram signals were recorded. Distractor names were semantically related or unrelated to target names. Variables of L2 proficiency (high proficiency or low proficiency) and semantic relatedness (related or unrelated) were manipulated in the experiment. Behavioral results demonstrated an interaction between L2 proficiency and semantic relatedness, with a semantic interference effect appearing only in high proficiency bilinguals. Waveform analysis indicated that semantic relatedness only exerted significant effects on event-related potentials in high proficiency bilinguals around 300-500 ms post picture presentation. Source localization analysis revealed that semantically related distractors induced higher brain activations in the left middle and superior temporal regions among high proficiency bilinguals, while higher brain activations were found in the right prefrontal cortex among low proficiency bilinguals. Taken together, these findings substantiate the role of language proficiency in determining whether L2 semantically related distractors are sufficiently activated to exceed the competition threshold and interfere with L2 picture naming.

Aging Effects on Phonological and Semantic Priming in the Tip-of-the-Tongue: Evidence From a Two-Step Approach

The mechanism underlying the age difference in spoken word production remains controversial. We used a two-step approach proposed by Gollan and Brown (2006) to investigate the semantic and phonological retrieval deficits when tip-of-the-tongue occurs in young and older adults. Importantly, we controlled the inhibition ability in both older and young groups. In experiment 1 with a people pictures naming task, older adults produced more TOTs than young adults, and they suffered from phonological retrieval deficit rather than semantic retrieval deficit in speaking. In experiment 2 with a priming paradigm, participants were presented semantically related or phonologically related names before target pictures, which formed semantic or phonological priming conditions for lexical access. Compared with young adults, older adults showed a greater effect of phonological priming on decreasing TOTs occurrence. For semantic retrieval deficit, older adults exhibited a smaller phonological facilitation effect and a larger semantic interference effect than young adults. For phonological retrieval deficit, older adults presented a larger phonological facilitation effect in the first-name related priming condition than the first-syllable related priming condition, whereas young adults showed similar facilitation effects between the two phonological priming conditions. Our findings provide consistent evidence for the transmission deficit hypothesis, and highlight that aging affects bidirectional connections between semantic and phonological nodes in speech production.

The Effect of Lexical Cohort Size Is Independent of Semantic Context Effects in a Picture-Word Interference Task: A Combined ERP and sLORETA Study

Lexical cohort size is known to play an important role in the magnitude of semantic interference during picture naming in continuous and blocking naming tasks. Nevertheless, whether and how lexical cohort size influences semantic context effects in a picture-word interference (PWI) task remains unclear. To address this issue, participants were required to name pictures, which were paired with both semantically related and unrelated distractors, from both large and small lexical cohorts while electroencephalogram (EEG) signals were recorded. Behavior results showed a semantic interference effect but no interaction between semantic relatedness and lexical cohort size in naming latencies. ERPs and correlation analyses revealed that semantic interference effects occurred at the lexical level in the time windows of 200-400 and 400-600 ms, and lexical cohort size effects occurred at the conceptual level in the time window of 100-200 ms and at the lexical level in the time windows of 200-400 ms. Critically, no interaction between two variables was found, reflecting that lexical cohort size is independent of semantic interference for categorical relations in the PWI. sLORETA results found stronger brain activations for large lexical cohorts at the left superior temporal gyrus and inferior frontal gyrus in the time interval of 250-300 ms, which may relate to lexical selection and self-monitoring. Our findings provide evidence for the swinging lexical network rather than the response exclusion hypothesis in spoken production.

Syllables are Retrieved before Segments in the Spoken Production of Mandarin Chinese: An ERP Study

Languages may differ in terms of the functional units of word-form encoding used in spoken word production. It is widely accepted that segments are the primary units used in Indo-European languages. However, it is controversial what the functional units (syllables or segments) in Chinese spoken word production are. In the present study, Mandarin Chinese speakers named pictures while ignoring distractor words presented simultaneously, which shared atonal syllables, bodies or rhymes, or were unrelated with the name of the target pictures. Behavioral results showed that naming latencies in the 3 phonologically-related conditions were significantly shorter than those associated with the unrelated condition. EEG data indicated that the syllable-related condition modulated event-related potentials (ERPs) in a time window of 320–500 ms, the body-related condition modulated ERPs from 370–420 ms, while the rhyme-related condition modulated ERPs from 400–450 ms. The starting points for evident syllable, body, and rhyme priming effects were 322 ms, 368 ms, and 408 ms (by the Guthrie & Buchwald method) or 340 ms, 372 ms and 403 ms (by the jackknife procedure), respectively. Our findings provide a relative temporal course of syllable and segment encoding in Chinese spoken naming: Syllables are retrieved before segments, and constitute the primary processing units during the early stage of word-form encoding. Furthermore, segments and their order are retrieved incrementally from left to right when producing Chinese spoken words.

Early and Late Effects of Semantic Distractors on Electroencephalographic Responses During Overt Picture Naming

This study investigated the nature of the interference effect of semantically related distractors in the picture-word interference paradigm, which has been claimed to be caused by either competition between lexical representations of target and distractor or by a late response exclusion mechanism that removes the distractor from a response buffer. EEG was recorded while participants overtly named pictures accompanied by categorically related versus unrelated written distractor words. In contrast to previous studies, stimuli were presented for only 250 ms to avoid any re-processing. ERP effects of relatedness were found around 290, 470, 540, and 660 ms post stimulus onset. In addition, related distractors led to an increase in midfrontal theta power, especially from about 440 to 540 ms, as well as to decreased high beta power between 40 and 110 ms and increased high beta power between 275 and 340 ms post stimulus onset. Response-locked analyses showed no differences in ERPs, however increased low and high beta power for related distractors in various time windows, most importantly a high beta power increase between -175 and -155 ms before speech onset. These results suggest that the semantic distractor effect is a combination of various effects and that the lexical competition account and the response exclusion account each capture a part, but not all aspects of the effect.

Probing the Timing Recruitment of Broca's Area in Speech Production for Mandarin Chinese: A TMS Study

Although Broca’s area is widely recognized to play an important role in speech production, neuroscientists still debate on its timing recruitment across different languages. In order to investigate the precise time course of phonological encoding for Mandarin Chinese, we applied real triple-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation (tpTMS) and sham tpTMS within Broca’s area at five different time windows respectively (150 ms, 225 ms, 300 ms, 400 ms and 500 ms) in picture naming task in Mandarin Chinese. To exclude unspecific TMS effects and to make sure that the effects observed in the study were really due to stimulation at Broca’s area, we also conducted a control experiment by a different group of subjects. Significant increases in reaction times (RTs) were observed when real TMS stimulation at Broca’s area was applied at 225 ms, 300 ms and 400 ms time windows with a peak at 225 ms, compared with sham TMS stimulation at other time windows. Our findings support the hypothesis that the phonological encoding in speech production for Chinese language may approximately start from 200 ms and end around 400 ms post target onset, a little earlier than that from 355 ms to 455 ms for Indo-European languages.

Primary phonological planning units in spoken word production are language-specific: Evidence from an ERP study

It is widely acknowledged in Germanic languages that segments are the primary planning units at the phonological encoding stage of spoken word production. Mixed results, however, have been found in Chinese, and it is still unclear what roles syllables and segments play in planning Chinese spoken word production. In the current study, participants were asked to first prepare and later produce disyllabic Mandarin words upon picture prompts and a response cue while electroencephalogram (EEG) signals were recorded. Each two consecutive pictures implicitly formed a pair of prime and target, whose names shared the same word-initial atonal syllable or the same word-initial segments, or were unrelated in the control conditions. Only syllable repetition induced significant effects on event-related brain potentials (ERPs) after target onset: a widely distributed positivity in the 200- to 400-ms interval and an anterior positivity in the 400- to 600-ms interval. We interpret these to reflect syllable-size representations at the phonological encoding and phonetic encoding stages. Our results provide the first electrophysiological evidence for the distinct role of syllables in producing Mandarin spoken words, supporting a language specificity hypothesis about the primary phonological units in spoken word production.

Electrophysiological characterization of facilitation and interference in the picture-word interference paradigm

The picture-word interference paradigm is often used to investigate the processes underlying word production. In this paradigm, participants name pictures while ignoring distractor words. The aim of this study is to investigate the processes underlying this task and how/when they differ from those involved in simple picture naming. It examines the electrophysiological signature of general interference (longer response times with than without distractors) and facilitation (shorter response times for distractor-word stimuli overlapping in phonemes/orthography) effects. Mass univariate analyses are used to determine the temporal boundaries and spatial distribution of these effects without a priori restrictions in the time/space dimensions. Topographic pattern analyses complement this information by indicating whether (and when) the neural networks differ across conditions. Results suggest that the general interference effect has two loci, the grammatical encoding and the phonological encoding of the target word, with different neural networks involved in the two tasks during part of the grammatical encoding process. Furthermore, the electrophysiological signature of interference and facilitation effects in the time window of phonological encoding is highly similar, suggesting that the two effects could result from the same underlying mechanism. These findings are discussed in the light of existing accounts of interference and facilitation effects.

The Temporal Courses of Phonological and Orthographic Encoding in Handwritten Production in Chinese: An ERP Study

A central issue in written production concerns how phonological codes influence the output of orthographic codes. We used a picture-word interference paradigm combined with the event-related potential technique to investigate the temporal courses of phonological and orthographic activation and their interplay in Chinese writing. Distractors were orthographically related, phonologically related, orthographically plus phonologically related, or unrelated to picture names. The behavioral results replicated the classic facilitation effect for all three types of relatedness. The ERP results indicated an orthographic effect in the time window of 370–500 ms (onset latency: 370 ms), a phonological effect in the time window of 460–500 ms (onset latency: 464 ms), and an additive pattern of both effects in both time windows, thus indicating that orthographic codes were accessed earlier than, and independent of, phonological codes in written production. The orthographic activation originates from the semantic system, whereas the phonological effect results from the activation spreading from the orthographic lexicon to the phonological lexicon. These findings substantially strengthen the existing evidence that shows that access to orthographic codes is not mediated by phonological information, and they provide important support for the orthographic autonomy hypothesis.

It Is Not Necessary to Retrieve the Phonological Nodes of Context Objects for Chinese Speakers

The issue of how activation is transmitted from semantic to phonological level in spoken production remains controversial. Recent evidences from alphabetic languages support a cascaded view. However, given the different architecture of phonological encoding in non-alphabetic languages, it is not clear whether this view applies in Chinese, as a non-alphabetic script. We therefore investigated whether the not-to-be named pictures activate their phonological properties in Chinese speech production. In Experiment 1, participants were presented a target English word and a context picture (semantically related or unrelated, phonologically related or unrelated to target word in Chinese) and were asked to translate the English word into a Chinese word. The translation latencies were faster in the semantically related condition than in the unrelated condition. By contrast, no difference between phonologically related and unrelated was observed. In Experiment 2, in order to promote participants phonological sensitivity in a word-translation task, we increased the proportion of phonologically related trials from 25 to 50%. In Experiment 3, we employed a word association task that was more sensitive to phonological activation of context objects than a word translation task. The phonological activation of context objects were absent again in Experiments 2 and 3. Bayes Factor analysis suggested that the absence of phonological activation of context pictures was reliable. Results consistently revealed that only target lemma could activate the corresponding phonological node to guide articulation whereas no phonological activation of non-target lemma’s in Chinese. The present findings thus support a discrete model in Chinese spoken word production, which was contrastive with the cascaded view in alphabetic languages production.

Additivity of semantic and phonological effects: Evidence from speech production in Mandarin

A number of previous studies using picture-word interference (PWI) tasks conducted with speakers of Western languages have demonstrated non-additive effects of semantic and form overlap between pictures and words, which may indicate underlying non-discrete processing stages in lexical retrieval. The present study used Mandarin speakers and presented Chinese characters as distractors. In two experiments, we crossed semantic relatedness with "pure" phonological (i.e., orthographically unrelated) relatedness and found statistically additive effects. In a third experiment, semantic relatedness was crossed with orthographic overlap (phonological overlap was avoided), and once again we found an additive pattern. The results are discussed with regard to possible cross-linguistic differences between Western and non-Western languages in terms of phonological encoding, as well as concerning the locus of relatedness effects in PWI tasks.

Cascadedness in Chinese written word production

In written word production, is activation transmitted from lexical-semantic selection to orthographic encoding in a serial or cascaded fashion? Very few previous studies have addressed this issue, and the existing evidence comes from languages with alphabetic orthographic systems. We report a study in which Chinese participants were presented with colored line drawings of objects and were instructed to write the name of the color while attempting to ignore the object. Significant priming was found when on a trial, the written response shared an orthographic radical with the written name of the object. This finding constitutes clear evidence that task-irrelevant lexical codes activate their corresponding orthographic representation, and hence suggests that activation flows in a cascaded fashion within the written production system. Additionally, the results speak to how the time interval between processing of target and distractor dimensions affects and modulates the emergence of orthographic facilitation effects.