Frequency trajectory effects in Chinese character recognition: evidence for the arbitrary mapping hypothesis

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Psycholinguistics
• Neuroscience

Background:

• Age of Acquisition (AoA) ratings are commonly used to study learning effects in word processing.
• Frequency trajectory, a measure of how word frequency changes over time, may offer a more robust investigation of learning effects.
• The arbitrary mapping hypothesis suggests learning effects are prominent when the relationship between different representational systems (e.g., orthography to phonology) is arbitrary.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate age-limited learning effects in Chinese character recognition using frequency trajectory.
• To test the arbitrary mapping hypothesis in a non-alphabetic writing system.
• To determine if frequency trajectory is a more reliable measure than AoA ratings for studying learning effects.

Main Methods:

• Experiment 1: Regression analyses comparing frequency trajectory and AoA, controlling for lexical properties.
• Experiment 2: Character naming task manipulating frequency trajectory and orthography-pronunciation predictability.
• Experiment 3: Semantic category judgment task manipulating frequency trajectory and orthography-meaning predictability.

Main Results:

• Frequency trajectory was less influenced by lexical properties and explained significant AoA variance.
• Frequency trajectory effects in character naming were observed only under arbitrary mapping conditions (orthography to pronunciation).
• Frequency trajectory effects in semantic judgment were found when orthography-meaning mapping was inconsistent.

Conclusions:

• AoA is a genuine factor in word processing, with effects contingent on arbitrary mappings.
• Frequency trajectory is a valuable measure for studying age-limited learning effects.
• Findings provide cross-linguistic support for the arbitrary mapping hypothesis in learning.