The transposed-character effect as an index of flexibility in processing character position information in logographic scripts¶

Theory · All theories
Evidence · 6 claims (5 for, 1 mixed) · 1 study (1 causal), q3 · 0 of 1 report an effect size · 6 claims rest on one study

Description¶

The article frames the transposed-character (TC) effect as a behavioral index of how strictly readers encode the position of characters within two-character logographic words: "The TC effect shows the flexibility of character position processing in Chinese Hanzi and Japanese Kanji." The effect is operationalized by comparing TC pseudowords (e.g., 界世-世界) with substituted-character control nonwords that hold the same correct characters in the same correct positions; a difference between the two conditions indicates that position information is not strictly processed. The study uses this framework to compare Chinese and Japanese speakers with identical homograph stimuli, concluding that Chinese speakers process Hanzi/Kanji position information more flexibly.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Comparison between TC pseudowords and substituted-character (SC/control) nonwords sharing correct characters in correct positions, since there should be no difference if position information is processed strictly

Constraints¶

• The article notes findings and models developed for alphabetic languages are challenging to apply directly to Hanzi and Kanji words, which have higher stroke counts, block-like square shapes, and meaning within each character

Target Learners¶

• Native Chinese speakers
• Native Japanese speakers
• skilled adult readers of logographic scripts

Target Learning Objectives¶

• Visual word recognition
• processing of character position information in two-character logographic words

Claims¶

• Tc Effect Exp1 Chinese Only [+M]
• Tc Effect Both Groups Masked Priming [+M]
• Tc Effect Larger For Chinese Supplementary [+M]
• Word frequency does not modulate the transposed-character effect in either experiment [+M]
• In Experiment 2, the native language × frequency interaction is significant, with both groups responding faster to high-frequency items [~M]
• 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 [+M]

Related Theories¶

Examples¶

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Key Sources¶

• 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