Orthography Mediates the Unconscious Semantic Processing of Chinese Characters

Whether conscious awareness is critical for detecting semantic information in individual words remains debated. We hypothesize that this issue is specific to language type and that orthography serves as a mediator between semantics and conscious awareness. Using a priming-based paradigm called breaking continuous flash suppression (b-CFS) with a full factorial design, this study investigated whether orthographic similarity and semantic relatedness between the prime and target could modulate conscious access to Chinese single characters. Statistics indicated that semantic relatedness did not facilitate the character's breakthrough from CFS unless combined with orthographic similarity, although orthographic similarity alone had an inhibitory effect. The results were discussed in light of the "unconscious binding" hypothesis and object-updating theory in visual perception as well as the unique sub-morphemic construction in psycholinguistics. Our findings demonstrate the possibility of orthography-based semantic processing occurring outside of conscious awareness and suggest that the multilevel interaction activation model may be applicable to the early recognition of Chinese characters.