Word frequency does not modulate the transposed-character effect in either experiment¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study (2 entries) · causal r2 · q3
Currency · newest study 2026 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q3 i? In Experiment 1 there was no interaction between nonword type and word frequency, so Hypothesis 1c was not supported. → Geng Yaoyao 2026 q3 i? In Experiment 2 the TC effect was likewise not modulated by frequency, so Hypothesis 2d was not supported. → Geng Yaoyao 2026 (2)

Evidence¶

Geng Yaoyao 2026¶

Geng Yaoyao, Morita Aiko. (2026). A Comparison of Transposed-Character Effect Between Chinese and Japanese Speakers: Processing Position Information of Hanzi and Kanji Characters. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10936-026-10279-0

q3 · i? · causal · r2

Null result from the Experiment 1 LME analyses of reaction times and error rates with 36 high- and 36 low-frequency base words. The authors report no type-of-nonword × frequency interaction and state the nonword type "was not modulated by frequency".

"We found no interaction between the type of nonword and word frequency. In other words, processing of the nonword type was not modulated by frequency. Thus, Hypothesis 1c was not supported."

Geng Yaoyao 2026 (2)¶

Geng Yaoyao, Morita Aiko. (2026). A Comparison of Transposed-Character Effect Between Chinese and Japanese Speakers: Processing Position Information of Hanzi and Kanji Characters. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10936-026-10279-0

q3 · i? · causal · r2

Null result from the Experiment 2 masked-priming lexical decision task with 63 Chinese and 63 Japanese speakers. The authors state the TC effect "was not modulated by frequency", replicating the Experiment 1 null result.

"Finally, as in Experiment 1, the TC effect was not modulated by frequency. Thus, Hypothesis 2d is not supported."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• In a single-word lexical decision task, Chinese speakers show a transposed-character effect in reaction times and error rates while Japanese speakers do not — related
• In a masked-priming lexical decision task, both Chinese and Japanese speakers show a TC effect, with TC primes producing faster responses than control nonword primes — related
• A supplementary analysis restricted to TC and control nonword primes shows the TC effect is marginally larger for Chinese than Japanese speakers — related
• The TC effect grows with prime time: it is significantly larger at 300 ms than at 60 ms and 150 ms, and does not decrease with longer prime time — related
• In Experiment 2, the native language × frequency interaction is significant, with both groups responding faster to high-frequency items — related
• VIP effects did not differ between English language learners and fluent English speakers in the study authors' analyses — related