The Effect of Word Predictability on Phonological Activation in Cantonese Reading: A Study of Eye-Fixations and Pupillar
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The Effect of Word Predictability on Phonological Activation in Cantonese Reading: A Study of Eye‑Fixations and Pupillary Response Philip Thierfelder1 · Gautier Durantin2 · Gillian Wigglesworth1
© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract This study aimed to investigate the effects of contextual predictability on orthographic and phonological activation during Chinese sentence reading by Cantonese-speaking readers using the error disruption paradigm. Participants’ eye fixations and pupil sizes were recorded while they silently read Chinese sentences containing homophonic, orthographic, and unrelated errors. Sentences had varying amounts of contextual information leading up to target words such that some targets were more predictable than others. Results of the fixation time analysis indicated that orthographic effects were significant in first fixation and gaze duration, while phonological effects emerged later in total reading time. However, interactions between predictability and the homophonic condition were found in gaze duration. These results suggest that, while Cantonese readers activate word meanings primarily through orthography in early processing, early phonological activation can occur when facilitated by semantics in high-constraint sentence contexts. Analysis of pupillary response measurements revealed that participants’ pupil sizes became larger when they read words containing orthographic errors, suggesting that orthographic error recovery processes significantly increase cognitive load. Keywords Chinese reading · Cantonese · Phonological activation · Eye-tracking · Pupil size
Introduction A major goal among researchers investigating the cognitive processes involved in silent reading has been to untangle the roles of orthography and phonology in relation to semantic access. One view is that word identification first involves the activation of a mental representation of the word’s phonological form, which in turn allows access to the word’s * Philip Thierfelder [email protected] 1
ARC Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia
2
ARC Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
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Vol.:(0123456789)
Journal of Psycholinguistic Research
meaning (Frost 1998; Van Orden 1987). Another view, referred to as the dual-route model (Coltheart et al. 2001), proposes that while reading the semantic system can be accessed either directly through orthography or via an indirect route by which orthography first activates phonology, which then in-turn activates meaning. According to this model, the more efficient direct route from orthography to meaning is predominant in skilled reading, but both routes can receive varying degrees of simultaneous activation. Whether phonological activation occurs prior to lexical access has been found to depend upon a complex interplay of factors including the skill of the reader, the frequency of the word, and the
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