Interactions between lexical and sublexical processes in written production: Evidence from two ERP experiments

This study examined the temporal dynamics of lexical and sublexical processing in Chinese spelling-to-dictation using two ERP experiments. Participants either wrote the initial character of two-character disyllabic words dictated to them (Experiment 1) or performed an auditory lexical decision task (Experiment 2), with character frequency (CF) and regularity manipulated. Results showed consistent CF effects in the N2 and late N400 windows across tasks, indicating shared lexical access and lexical competition processes. Crucially, CF-by-regularity interactions emerged only in spelling-to-dictation within the P2 and P3 intervals, suggesting processes specific to orthographic production. The P2 interaction may reflect early modulation of lexical activation by sublexical syllable-to-phonetic radical mappings, whereas the P3 interaction suggests enhanced orthographic encoding and response preparation when lexical and sublexical orthographic outputs converge. These findings support an interactive dual-route account of spelling and highlight how the Chinese writing system shapes the time course of written word production.