Liu I M, Zhu Y, Wu J T
Department of Psychology, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, NT.
Cognition. 1992 Apr;43(1):31-66. doi: 10.1016/0010-0277(92)90031-c.
The visual superiority effect (a reverse long-term modality effect) has been consistently found with Chinese logographs. For its explanation in terms of script differences, it has been believed that lexical access is more direct or quicker for Chinese logographs than for alphabetic words. It has also been believed that Chinese logographs are more unique in shape or more discriminable than alphabetic words. Finally, Chinese logographs have been considered to facilitate recall through their graphic features that classify Chinese words into categories. The results of Experiments 1-5 show that these three assumptions can be ruled out. The results of Experiments 6-10, on the other hand, support the long-term priming interpretation of the visual superiority effect, which explains (a) why the visual superiority effect can be consistently obtained for recall of Chinese words by Chinese subjects, (b) why the effect cannot be consistently obtained for recall of English words by Western subjects, (c) why the effect can be also obtained for recall of English words by Chinese subjects, (d) why the effect can be easily obtained for recall of a set of words, but not for recall of a different set of words by Chinese subjects, and (e) why the effect can be easily obtained from Chinese subjects speaking a dialect that is different from Mandarin.
视觉优势效应（一种反向的长期模态效应）在中国汉字中一直被发现。就其基于文字差异的解释而言，人们一直认为，对于汉字来说，词汇通达比字母文字更直接或更快。人们还认为，汉字在形状上更独特，或者比字母文字更具可辨别性。最后，汉字被认为通过其将汉字分类的图形特征来促进记忆。实验1 - 5的结果表明，这三种假设可以被排除。另一方面，实验6 - 10的结果支持了视觉优势效应的长期启动解释，该解释说明了：（a）为什么中国受试者在回忆中文单词时能够持续获得视觉优势效应；（b）为什么西方受试者在回忆英文单词时不能持续获得该效应；（c）为什么中国受试者在回忆英文单词时也能获得该效应；（d）为什么中国受试者在回忆一组单词时很容易获得该效应，而在回忆另一组不同的单词时却不能；以及（e）为什么说与普通话不同方言的中国受试者也能很容易地获得该效应。
