Effects of numbers of strokes on Chinese character recognition during a normal reading condition

Two experiments investigated recognition during a normal reading condition of Chinese characters which had varied numbers of strokes. In Exp. 1 the minimal legible character size necessary for attaining 95% recognition accuracy for various Chinese characters was empirically determined. The number of strokes comprising the characters ranged from 3 to 27. The results of a normal reading condition indicated that characters with more strokes had to be larger. In Exp. 2, recognition error rate and reading time measured in seconds were investigated for one Chinese character string composed of characters of minimally legible size versus conventional equal-size characters presented in a normal reading condition. Recognition error rates for the minimally legible size conditions were lower than those for the conventional size conditions. The reading times for the former were shorter. These results should provide a valuable reference for designing informational formats, literacy teaching, and the study of simplifying Chinese characters.