The influence of writing experiences on holistic processing in Chinese character recognition

Holistic processing has been shown to be a behavioral marker of face recognition and object recognition in experts. We tested Chinese literates who can read and write Chinese characters (Writers) and Chinese literates whose reading performance far exceeded their writing ability (Limited-writers). We found that Writers perceived Chinese characters less holistically than Limited-writers. In addition, the holistic processing effect was found to be dependent of writing experiences rather than reading and copying performances. This effect may be due to Chinese Writers exhibiting a better awareness of the orthographic components of Chinese characters than Limited-writers. While Hsiao and Cottrell (2009) showed that reduced holistic processing is a marker of visual expertise in Chinese character recognition, our findings further suggest that such reduction is related to writing experiences in Chinese. This study is also the first to report on the Chinese reading population that has far poorer writing performance than reading performance.postprin

Expert marker of Chinese character recognition: Left-side bias versus holistic processing?

Holistic processing and left-side bias are both behavioral markers of expert face recognition. In contrast, Chinese character recognition expertise involves left-side bias but reduced holistic processing (Hsiao & Cottrell, 2009). Here we examine whether the reduction in holistic processing associated with expert Chinese character recognition can be better explained by writing rather than reading experience. Compared with non-Chinese readers (novices), Chinese readers who had limited writing experience (Limited-writers) showed increased holistic processing, whereas Chinese readers who could also write characters fluently (Writers) showed reduced holistic processing. This result suggests that writing/sensorimotor experience can modulate holistic processing effects, and that the reduced holistic processing observed in expert Chinese readers may depend on writing rather than reading experience. By contrast, both Writers and Limited-writers showed a similar level of left-side bias in processing symmetric Chinese characters, left-side bias may therefore be a consistent expertise marker for object recognition uninfluenced by motor experience

How do different training tasks modulate our perception and hemispheric lateralization in the development of perceptual expertise?

Conference Theme: Mind, Technology, and SocietyHolistic processing (HP) and hemispheric lateralization are both expertise markers of object recognition. For example, expertise in face and sub-ordinate object perception is shown to be associated with HP and stronger right hemispheric lateralization. However, HP is modulated by experiences of selective attention to parts such as writing experiences of Chinese characters (Tso, Au, & Hsiao, 2014) and drawing experiences of faces (Zhou et al., 2011). Meanwhile, hemispheric lateralization is associated with the decoding strategy employed in object recognition, such as left hemispheric lateralization for reading alphabetic scripts and right hemispheric lateralization for reading logographic scripts. This study aims at training participants to recognize the same sets of artificially-created scripts using either whole-word (Logographic) or grapheme-to-phoneme (Alphabetic) approaches. We found that both approaches induced strong HP, though the alphabetic approach induced stronger left hemisphere advantage than the logographic approach. This training study demonstrates that HP and hemispheric lateralization are separate processes that are associated with different perceptual mechanisms.postprin

Children at risk : their phonemic awareness development in holistic instruction

Includes bibliographical references (p. 17-19

Computational exploration of task and attention modulation on holistic processing and left side bias effects in face recognition: the case of face drawing experts

Fulltext in: http://mindmodeling.org/cogsci2013/papers/0429/paper0429.pdfDrawing artists and non-drawers are like any adult both experts at face recognition. Yet, artists have a richer learning experience with faces: they were trained in rapid sketching of faces. Zhou, Cheng, Zhang and Wong (2011) found that drawing experts showed less holistic processing (HP) for face recognition than non-drawers. Using a computational model of face recognition that did not implement motor processing, we examined whether engagement of local attention and nature of the learning task could account for the reduced HP in drawers without the influence from motor experience. We showed that compared with the non-drawer model that had a global face input (i.e., Hsiao, Shieh & Cottrell, 2008), a drawer model that incorporated both global face and local facial parts (eyes and mouth) in the input showed reduced HP, suggesting the modulation of local attention engagement. In contrast, the other drawer model that used only global face input but learned to perform an additional face part identification task did not show the reduced HP effect. In addition, both drawer models demonstrated stronger left side (right hemisphere) bias than the non-drawer model. Our data thus suggest that engagement of local attention is sufficient to account for the reduced HP in drawers, and that HP and left side bias effects can be differentially modulated by visual attention or task requirements

Can experience with different types of writing system modulate holistic processing in speech perception?

Conference Theme: Mind, Technology, and SocietyHolistic processing (HP) is an expertise marker in visual perception; nevertheless, it can be modulated by writing experience (Tso, Au, & Hsiao, 2014). We have recently found that HP also indicates expertise in Cantonese speech perception (Liu & Hsiao, 2014). Nevertheless, Cantonese has a logographic writing system where one syllable corresponds to one character, whereas in alphabetic languages, each syllable can be decomposed into phonemes that correspond to letters. This distinction between logographic and alphabetic languages may also modulate HP effects in speech perception. Here we tested HP effects through the composite paradigm with Korean syllables. In contrast to Cantonese speech perception, native Korean speakers were less holistic than novices in Korean syllable perception. Thus, experience with an alphabetic language may promote analytic processing of its spoken syllables. Similar to visual perception, our results suggest that HP as an expertise marker in speech perception depends on the listeners’ learning experience.postprin

Learning Chinese Mandarin characters in an English-speaking country: The development of a child’s symbolic mind

This qualitative research explores the development of the symbolic mind in children through learning Chinese Mandarin characters. Navigated through the lens of relational developmental system metatheory and guided by Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory, findings present the analysis of the developmental processes in children’s recognition of symbols and use of known symbols to make and share meaning. This study also offers an explanation of the effect of changes in the sociocultural environment on children's symbolic development. Further, cultural differences toward symbolic representation are discussed with the recommendation of focusing on recognition followed by writing when learning Chinese Mandarin characters

Does learning different script systems affect configural visual processing? ERP evidence from early readers of Chinese and German

Reading is a complex cultural skill requiring considerable training, apparently affecting also the processing of non-linguistic visual stimuli. We examined whether the different visual demands involved in reading different script systems—alphabetic German versus logographic Chinese script—would differentially influence configural visual processing. Our main dependent measure was the N170 component of the ERP, which is considered as a signature of configural processing. In the present study, German and Chinese children (N = 28 vs. 27) who had received about one year of formal instruction in their native script system, worked on a series of one-back tasks with naturalistic faces, two-tone Mooney faces and doodles, and on an adaptation task with pairs of faces were either identical or differed in their second-order relations. Chinese children showed larger N170 amplitudes than German children for naturalistic and Mooney faces, specifically indicating superior holistic processing in Chinese children. In contrast, there was no superiority in Chinese children on the second-order adaptation effect at the N170, providing no evidence for differences in second-order relations processing of facial configurations between the groups. Given the sensitivity of the visual system to reading acquisition, these findings suggest that these group differences in holistic processing might be due to the extensive training with the highly complex logographic script system learned by Chinese children, imposing high demands on higher-order visual perception.China Scholarship Council http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100004543National Natural Science Foundation of China http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100001809Peer Reviewe

Differential effects of script system acquisition and social immersion experience on face perception

Informelle Berichte zeigten größere Amplituden der durch Gesichter ausgelösten N170 Komponente im Ereigniskorrelierten Potenzial (EKP) bei asiatischen als bei kaukasischen Probanden. Als mögliche Ursache vermutete ich unterschiedliche Erfahrungen mit logographischen bzw. alphabetischen Schriftsystemen (Schriftsystem-Hypothese) oder die verstärkte Exposition mit unbekannten Gesichtern während der Immersion in eine neue soziale oder ethnische Umgebung (soziale Immersions-Hypothese). Zur Überprüfung dieser Hypothesen führte ich zwei kulturvergleichende Studien mit Erwachsenen bzw. Kindern durch. In Studie 1 untersuchte ich einheimische Chinesen und nicht-chinesische Auswärtige in Hongkong und deutsche Einheimische und chinesische Auswärtige in Berlin. Die Auswärtigen an beiden Orten zeigten größere N170 Amplituden auf Gesichter als die Einheimischen. Außerdem zeigten Deutsche, die erst kurze Zeit in Berlin lebten ähnliche Amplituden wie langjährige Einheimische. Insgesamt unterstützt Studie 1 die soziale Immersions-Hypothese, dass die Immersion in eine neue ethnische Umgebung zu einer Vergrößerung der N170 führt. Studie 2 untersuchte die Schriftsystem-Hypothese bei chinesischen und deutschen Erstlesern am Ende der ersten oder zu Beginn des zweiten Schuljahres an ihrem jeweiligen Heimatort. Die Ergebnisse unterstützen die Schriftsystem-Hypothese, dass chinesische Kinder eine größere N170 auf Gesichter zeigen als deutsche. Insgesamt konnte die vorliegende Dissertation zwei neue Einfluss-Faktoren auf das Gesichterverarbeitungs-System nachweisen, das erworbene Schriftsystem (logographische versus alphabetisch) und die Erfahrung sozialer Immersion in eine neue ethnische Umgebung. Diese Effekte zu ganz unterschiedlichen Zeitpunkten der Entwicklung (Kindheit vs. junges Erwachsenen-Alter) zeigen, dass das Gesichterverarbeitungs-System über lange Zeit seine Plastizität behält.Informal reports have shown larger face-elicited N170 component of event-related potential (ERP) in Asians than Caucasians participants. I proposed that different experience with logographic versus alphabetic scripts (script system hypothesis) or by exposure to abundant novel faces during the immersion into a new social and/or ethnic environment (social immersion hypothesis) as a possible cause. To test these hypotheses, I conducted two cross-cultural ERP studies with adults and Children. In Study 1, I examined Chinese locals and non-Chinese foreigners in Hongkong, and German locals and Chinese foreigners in Berlin. It turned out that the foreigners in both locations showed larger N170 amplitudes to faces than the locals. In addition, Germans who had only lived in Berlin for a short time showed similar face N170 amplitudes as long-term Berlin residents. In sum, Study 1 supports the social immersion hypothesis that immersing into a new ethnic environment drives an increase of face N170. Study 2 investigated the scripts system hypothesis in Chinese and German early readers assessed at the end of the first-grade or at the beginning of the second grade in their respective home towns. The findings support the script system hypothesis that Chinese children showed larger face N170 amplitudes than German children. Overall, the present thesis demonstrated two new influencing factors on the face processing system, the acquired script system (logographic vs. alphabetic) and the social immersion experience in a new ethnic environment. More specifically, learning to read a visually complex logographic Chinese script or immersing into an other-ethnic social environment facilitates early perceptual processing of faces. These effects acquired at different stages of development (early childhood versus young adulthood) show that the face processing system retains its plasticity over a long period of time