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¶

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? Chinese participants took longer to reject TC pseudowords than control nonwords, whereas Japanese participants showed no significant reaction-time difference between the two nonword types. → Geng Yaoyao 2026 q3 i? Chinese participants made significantly more errors on TC pseudowords than control nonwords; Japanese participants showed no significant error-rate difference. → 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

Single-word lexical decision experiment with 20 Chinese and 20 Japanese participants (one Japanese participant excluded) analyzing log-transformed RTs with LME models. The language × nonword-type interaction was significant (χ2(1) = 4.786, p = .029), with the "significant difference in reaction times between the trans condition and the control condition for Chinese participants" but no significant difference for Japanese participants (p(tukey) = 0.903).

"The results of the post-hoc tests (Table 2) revealed a significant difference in reaction times between the trans condition and the control condition for Chinese participants (β = 0.089, SE = 0.025, t = 3.579, p(tukey) = 0.004)."

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

Generalized LME analysis of error rates from the same 40 participants in Experiment 1. The language × nonword-type interaction was significant (χ2(1) = 4.277, p = 0.039); the quoted post-hoc contrast was significant for Chinese participants, while the Japanese contrast was not (p(tukey) = 0.904).

"The results of the post-hoc tests indicated a significant difference in error rates between the TC nonword condition and the control nonword condition among Chinese participants (β = 1.149, SE = 0.387, t = 2.972, p(tukey) = 0.016)."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

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