Orthographic facilitation in Chinese spoken word recognition: An ERP study

Orthographic influences in spoken word recognition have been previously examined in alphabetic languages. However, it is unknown whether orthographic information affects spoken word recognition in Chinese, which has a clean dissociation between orthography (O) and phonology (P). The present study investigated orthographic effects using event related potentials (ERPs) and an auditory lexical decision task. We manipulated the relationship between the phonology and orthography of the first syllable in each prime-target pair using the following four conditions: P+O+, P+O−, P−O+, P−O−. Importantly, we found significantly reduced N400 amplitudes when an item was preceded by an orthographically similar prime. In addition, these reduced N400 amplitudes were positively correlated with participants’ reading skill. The findings indicate that orthographic information is activated automatically during Chinese spoken word recognition, supporting the theory that there is a reciprocal connection between speech and print.

► Orthography was automatically activated during Chinese spoken word recognition.
► Reduced N400 amplitude was found when an item was preceded by an orthographically similarly prime.
► Orthographic effect on N400 was positively correlated with reading skill.