Perceptual Coherence of Chinese Characters: Orthographic Satiation and Disorganization

Abstract

After prolonged viewing of a Chinese character, most native Chinese speakers have experienced the loss of perceptual coherence of the whole character, known as orthographic satiation. This phenomenon, which only occurs in Chinese characters and Japanese kanji, has been sparsely researched (e.g., Cheng & Wu, 1994; Ninose & Gyoba, 1996, 2002). In the present study, we used left-right phonetic compounds (SP and PS characters; see Hsiao & Shillcock, 2005a) to explore the orthographic satiation effect in Chinese and how it is influenced by sex and radical order, input modes, and numerous linguistic variables of the characters. Our results demonstrated that satiation of Chinese characters is a robust effect, the locus of which lies at a higher cognitive level, and that satiation is influenced by differential styles of processing in the left and the right hemisphere (fine vs. coarse coding) as well as by the difference of functional laterality in the male and female brain.