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Valency, secondary frequency, and lexical access: A Japanese study

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

Jun Yamada  and
Yuriko Kayamoto
Jun Yamada*
Affiliation:
Hiroshima University
Yuriko Kayamoto
Affiliation:
Hiroshima University
*
Faculty of Integrated Arts and Sciences, Hiroshima University, 1-7-1, Kagamiyama, Higashi Hiroshima, 739-0046, Japan. Email: junyamd@ipc.hiroshima-u.ac.jp
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Abstract

This study examines the effect of valency (defined as the associative value that represents the number of two-kanji words containing in first or second position the first-positional kanji of the word) on the recognition of two-kanji words in Japanese. Lexical decisions were 24 ms faster for words in the high-valency condition than in the low-valency condition, but were 26 ms slower for nonwords in the high-valency condition than in the low-valency condition. While these results suggested a significant interaction between valency and wordness, a regression analysis indicated that the frequency and valency of the first constituent kanji are significant factors for word recognition, and that the frequency of the first constituent kanji is a significant factor for nonword recognition. The secondary-frequency effect hypothesis is put forth to explain the effects of valency and other variables on lexical decision time.

Information

Type
Articles
Information
Applied Psycholinguistics , Volume 19 , Issue 1 , January 1998 , pp. 87 - 97
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1998

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