The effect of script frequency on semantic processing of Kanji and Kana words

Abstract

To examine the effect of script type and/or script frequency on the semantic access to words, 34 undergraduates were required the category decision for each word presented tachistoscopically. Three classes of words were used as stimuli; Kana words with low Kana script frequency (Kana-Low), Kana words with high Kana script frequency (Kana-High), and Kanji words with high Kanji script frequency (Kanji). Mean decision latency for Kana-High was shorter than that for Kana-Low, while there was no difference of latency between Kana-High and Kanji. These results show that the speed of semantic access depends on script frequency rather than script type.