Reconstructing Chinese Characters without writing: enhancing holistic processing and orthographic awareness

Abstract

Holistic processing (HP) can serve as a behavioral marker of expertise in face processing and visual object. While beginning readers of Chinese first show an increase in holistic processing of Chinese orthographic characters (Tso, Au, & Hsiao, 2012, 2013), expert Chinese readers actually show reduced holistic processing (Hsiao & Cottrell, 2009), especially those with extensive experience writing Chinese characters (Tso, Au, & Hsiao, 2014). Are both the sensiormotor experience and the experience of attending to the local orthographic structures of Chinese characters—both are required in writing out Chinese characters—necessary for explaining this observed reduction in holistic processing? The present study examined whether the latter process alone can reduce holistic processing. This training study examined whether second-language Chinese learners with limited experience writing Chinese characters can reduce their holistic processing—seen in expert Chinese readers with plenty of such writing experience—via producing Chinese characters using character component stickers (similar to doing jigsaw puzzles). Results: Attending to local components alone—via looking at Chinese characters and reproducing them by putting together components in jigsaw-puzzle-like pieces—enhanced both holistic processing and orthographic awareness. Like copying by hand, this novel way to reproduce Chinese characters also improved Chinese character dictation. However, copying increased neither holistic processing nor orthographic awareness. It seems, then, that the increase in holistic mental representation of Chinese characters among beginner learners might mark the initial stage of acquiring expertise in Chinese character recognition. This increase can be facilitated by reconstructing Chinese characters using the novel jigsaw-puzzle method developed in this study. Importantly, the attending to local component structure required by this novel character reconstruction method does not suffice to reduce holistic processing of Chinese characters.