The role of phonological information in the reading of Japanese kana and kanji words

2016 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 24530924
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Experimental psychology
• Research Institution: Waseda University
• Principal Investigator: Hino Yasushi 早稲田大学, 文学学術院, 教授 (00386567)
• Research Collaborator: KUSUNOSE Yuu ; IDA Keisuke ; YOSHIHARA Masahiro
• Project Period (FY): 2012-04-01 – 2017-03-31
• Keywords: 自動的音韻活性化 / 音韻－形態対応の一貫性 / 意味符号化経路 / 仮名表記語 / 漢字表記語

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In order to address the issue of whether Japanese kana and kanji words are read differently, I attempted to examine 1) whether automatic phonological activation arises for kana and kanji words, 2) whether different semantic activation routes are used for kana and kanji words, and 3) whether the nature of phonological-orthographic (P-O) relationships is different for kana and kanji words. The results suggested that, for both kana and kanji words, 1) automatic phonological activation arises early in processing and 2) semantic activation arises directly from orthography when the orthographic forms are familiar, whereas semantic activation arises via phonology when the orthographic forms are unfamiliar. When the P-O relationships and the effect of P-O consistency were examined, however, the difference did emerge for kana versus kanji words. These results indicate that P-O consistency must be taken into account when considering the processing difference for kana and kanji words.

Free Research Field

認知心理学・言語心理学