The solution effects of initial fragments on perceptual interference in Chinese characters

A large word fragment (e.g., "r__ i__rop") is harder to solve when disclosed piecemeal from a smaller fragment (e.g., "r_____p") than when shown all at once. This perceptual interference has been found to decrease with the number of solutions to the initial fragments. In the present study, 2 experiments manipulated the number of solutions (1 vs. at least 3) to examine this solution effect using a fragment completion task with Chinese characters. The results revealed a solution effect and showed for the first time no interference in the multiple-solution condition. These findings provide evidence against a competition explanation, which attributes interference to activations of incorrect hypotheses in an early presentation, and in favor of a mismatch explanation, which attributes interference to an enduring inhibition of the correct hypothesis regarding stimulus identity after a mismatch is detected between the hypothesis and the stimulus early in the presentation sequence.