28th International Congress of Psychology August 8 ... - U-netSURF

interaction among familiarity, context of words and grades was also significant. The results can
help us improve idiom teaching theoretically and practically.
5118.6 Topological properties in Chinese character processing, Dingguo Gao 1 , Henry Kao 2 ,
Hengyi Rao 1 , Xiaoyun Xiao 1 , 1 Department of Psychology, Sun Yat-Sen University, China,
2
Department of Psychology, The University of Hong Kong, China
Chen (2001) proposed topological properties are the functional primitives for visual perception.
This study was designed to examine whether topological properties (i.e., connectedness,
containment and holes) affect Chinese character processing in two experiments. In Experiment 1,
the data revealed that topologically equivalent Chinese characters with high frequency were more
difficult to discriminate in a visual matching task, whereas characters with low frequency showed
no this effect. In Experiment 2, there was a priming effect for topological related characters with
low frequency characters but not for high frequency characters. The findings show a role of
topological properties in identifying Chinese characters.
5118.7 The preference effect in short-term priming of Chinese word, Liandi Wei, Xiaodong Li,
China
By using two-alternative forced-choice task (2-AFC), this study examined the preference effect in
short-term priming of Chinese word. The result showed that the preference effect did exist in
short-term priming of Chinese words. The frequency of words had significant influence on
preference. Preference effect was larger when the words were high frequency. The result also
demonstrated that preference occurred on the condition of pure implicit memory, which did not
depend on processing level.
5118.8 The number of syllable effect in Chinese word production: Testing MacKay’s node
structure theory, Jenn-Yeu Chen, Ching-Hui Tsai, National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan,
China
MacKay's (1987) Node Structure Theory predicts that the onset latency in producing a word
increases with the number of syllables in the word. However, the prediction only distinguishes
between mono- and polysyllabic words. The word onset latency does not increase when the
number of syllables increases from two to more than two. Evidence obtained by Santiago,
MacKay, Palma and Rho (2000) was limited to one- and two-syllable words. The present study
extended the test of the Theory by including three-syllable words. Results showed an increase of
word onset latency beyond the length of two syllables, inconsistent with the Theory's prediction.
5119 ORAL
Human development
Chair: Yong Wang, China
5119.1 Shifts in cognitive performance during pregnancy and early motherhood, Renate De
Groot, Eric Vuurman, Gerard Hornstra, Jelle Jolles, Maastricht University, The Netherlands,
Maastricht University, The Netherlands
Scientific evidence for pregnancy-associated cognitive deficits is scarce. Therefore, we compared
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