國小五年級孩童與成人的識字能力對中文字語意處理之效應的差異

Effect of Vocabulary Size on Semantic Processing of Chinese Characters for Fifth Graders and Adults

李姝慧(Shu-Hui Lee) ； 陳修元(Shiou-Yuan Chen) ； 周泰立(Tai-Li Chou)

《中華心理衛生學刊》 22卷4期 (2009/12) Pp. 345-382

https://doi.org/10.30074/FJMH.200912_22(4).0001

摘要

研究目的：目前探討中文識字能力的研究主要在字形處理及語音處理兩個取向，但尚未有語意處理與中文識字能力的關係的研究。因此，本研究以語意判斷作業進行三個實驗，探討五年級孩童及成人、五年級高／低識字能力孩童在語意處理上的差異。研究方法：本實驗操弄三種語意關聯強度字對（高、低、無關語意），要求參與者判斷視覺－聽覺呈現的兩個中文的字對是否具有語意關係。研究結果：隨著語意關聯強度減弱，參與者的正確率都隨之下降，所需反應時間皆隨之增加。成人在高低語意判斷間的差異，較孩童在高低語意判斷間的差異來得大。高識字能力孩童較低識字能力的孩童，在高低語意判斷上都呈現較優的表現。研究結論：一、年齡與識字能力的差異，反映語意處理之間的差異，孩童較成人在搜尋和整合正確的語意特徵時，做出判斷反應上有困難。二、低識字能力孩童無法掌握字彙的字形、語音及語意的對應關係，因此在語意判斷作業的表現比高識字能力孩童差。

關鍵字

語意 ； 語音 ； 字形 ； 語意關聯強度

並列摘要

Purpose: Reading fluency requires the ability to integrate orthographic, phonological, and semantic representations. While many studies have focused on the effect of vocabulary size on orthographic and phonological processes with Chinese characters, few have explored the effect of vocabulary size on semantic processing. Three cross-modal experiments of semantic relatedness judgment were conducted to address this topic. Experiment 1 evaluated the difference between 24 fifth graders and 24 adults. Experiment 2 replicated the findings in Experiment 1 through matched intelligence scores between 12 adults and 12 fifth graders. In Experiment 3, we tested the semantic judgments of 2 groups of fifth graders with different vocabulary sizes. Methods: We manipulated the semantic association between character pairs (strong, weak, and unrelated). The first character was presented visually and the second character was presented orally. Participants indicated whether the 2 characters were semantically related. Results: Reduced accuracy and longer reaction times were found for character pairs with weak associations, as compared to those with strong associations across the 3 experiments, suggesting that there are increased selection demands when processing distantly related pairs. In the first experiment, as in the second experiment with paired intelligence scores, the difference between strong and weak association strength was larger for the adults than for the fifth graders. The findings remained after partialling out working memory scores with ANCOVA analyses. In the third experiment, fifth graders with a larger vocabulary size showed better performance for both strong and weak association character pairs as compared to fifth graders with a smaller vocabulary size. The findings remained after partialling out working memory scores by ANCOVA analyses. Conclusions: Both age and vocabulary size were found to be related to semantic processing. The visual-auditory presentation required participants to select a semantically appropriate answer for the second homophonic character. This selection mechanism required searching for and integrating the overlapping semantic features of the 2 presented characters. In Experiments 1 and 2, fifth graders demonstrated poorer search and integration of semantic features as compared to adults. Adults may have more close connections in their semantic representational systems available to process strongly related pairs than weakly related pairs. In contrast, fifth graders may not be able to differentiate effectively the semantic relationship between strong and weak pairs. As age increases, children with more reading experience may have more elaborate semantic representations and thus more close semantic connections with which to process characters. Moreover, participants may need to be competent in mapping visual form, sound, and meaning between the first and the second characters in these cross modal tasks. Mapping ability between lexical representations may affect participants' performance in selecting the semantically appropriate answer. Fifth graders with a smaller vocabulary size may be deficient in mapping among semantics, phonology, and orthography, producing poorer performance on meaning judgments as compared to fifth graders with a larger vocabulary size.

並列關鍵字

semantics ； phonology ； orthography ； semantic association strength

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