Orthographic neighborhood is defined as Chinese characters with the same phonetic radical by Bi et al. (2006). For instance, characters 圾 (ji1, garbage), 汲 (ji2, draw), 极 (ji2, unmitigated), 笈 (ji2, book), 岌 (ji2, danger), 级 (ji2, class), 吸 (xi1, absorb), and 靸 (sa3, shoes) have the same phonetic radical 及 (ji2, and). Bi and her research group observed an inhibitory orthographic neighborhood size effect (N size effect). Later, with manipulating neighbor frequency, N size effect was investigated systematically. Results of reaction times showed that, when there was no neighbor with higher frequency (HFN) than target character, N size effect was facilitatory; otherwise, if there existed at least one HFN with different pronunciation, the effect was inhibitory. Based on the above results, we proposed a two-phase assumption about the N size effect in Chinese character naming: activation from similar orthography and phonological interruption from HFNs. The following neuroimaging study supportively showed that visual forms and sounds of the neighbors would activate corresponding brain areas. In the without-HFN condition, large N-size targets induced greater activations than small N-size characters in the right middle occipital gyrus; with-HFN characters evoked greater activations than without-HFN characters in the bilateral inferior frontal gyrus; main effect of N size was significant in the left middle frontal gyrus, large N-size targets induced less activation than small N-size. To explore its time course, an ERP study was applied. The present results were also consistent with our two-phase assumption, in the without-HFN condition, large N-size characters induced greater amplitudes than small N-size characters in the occipital N170; with-HFN characters triggered greater frontal P200 than without-HFN characters. Moreover, we have finished a developmental research of Chinese N size effect, and the paper was in preparation.

Studies have been published in European Journal of Neuroscience and Acta Psychologia.

Li, Q. L., Bi, H. Y., & Zhang, J. X. (2010). Neural Correlates of Orthographic Neighborhood Size Effect on Naming Chinese Character: An fMRI Study. European Journal of Neuroscience, 32(5), 866-872.

Li, Q. L., Bi, H. Y., Wei, T. Q., & Chen, B. G. (2011). Orthographic Neighborhood Size Effect in Chinese Character Naming: Orthographic and Phonological Activations. Acta Psychologia, 136, 35-41.

Table 1 Mean reaction times across different conditions

Note. HFN means higher frequency neighbor. Large and small are different sizes of the orthographic neighborhoods.

Figure 1 a, main effect of N size located in the left middle frontal gyrus. b and c, main effect of the neighbor frequency, located in bilateral inferior frontal gyrus. d, the N size effect in the without-HFN condition, located in the right middle occipital gyrus.