Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1983. / Typescript. Vita. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 199-210).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1972. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1983. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 179-197).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Ohio University, June, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 103-120)

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2006. / Title from first page of PDF file. Includes bibliographical references (p. 166-177).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Brown University, 2005. / Vita. Thesis advisor: Julie Sedivy. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 167-178). Also available online.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Lehigh University, 2006. / Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 144-154).

No description available.

It has long been known that word length has a larger influence on the recognition of words presented in the left visual field than the right visual field, an effect commonly referred to as the length by visual field interaction. The aim of the present thesis was to explore the neural and behavioural effects of the length by visual field interaction. In doing so, it was expected that the results would contribute to and extend the body of behavioural research in this area, particularly in regard to the hemispheric processing of words. Chapter One presents a general overview of the thesis; in Chapter Two, the nature of the right visual field advantage is reviewed, with particular reference to previous work that has demonstrated differential effects of word length in each of the cerebral hemispheres. Models that seek to account for visual field asymmetries are also reviewed. Chapter Three outlines the key methods adopted in the thesis, namely, the divided visual field task and the use of event-related potentials. Chapters Four and Five present the results of two experiments that explored the neural effect of increasing word length in each of the hemispheres. The results provided ERP evidence of early processing dissociations between the hemispheres in terms of words and non-words of different lengths. Experiments 3-6 explored the effect of orthographic uniqueness point in each of the visual fields, as a means of exploring the nature of processing conducted by each hemisphere. Across three experiments, it was shown that words with a late uniqueness point were recognised faster and more accurately than words with an early uniqueness point. This facilitation for late uniqueness point words was evident in the ERP response at 170ms. Furthermore, orthographic uniqueness point was shown to differentially affect each of the hemispheres. Experiments 6-9 provided evidence to suggest that the interaction of length and visual field was influenced by orthographic depth, a property of language that reflects the transparency with which sounds are represented in print. In Chapter Ten, the effect of format distortion on the interaction of length and visual field was explored. Finally, Chapter Ten summarises and discuss the key findings of the present thesis in light of theories that seek to account for lateralised word recognition.

Recent progress in psycholinguistic research on written Chinese allows us to develop a new approach to investigate the Chinese reading acquisition process. We hypothesized that Chinese children, much like children learning an alphabetic script, do not simply learn written words by rote. As they are taught words to be learned by rote, they develop an implicit understanding of the formal and functional characteristics of written Chinese. The formal characteristics refer to the graphic structure and the positioning of the stroke-patterns, and the functional characteristics refer to the semantic and phonological information conveyed in the stroke-patterns. The studies reported were designed to investigate the nature of children's learning of written Chinese. In two series of studies, a total of 236 children from Hong Kong, aged four to nine, created and decoded novel Chinese compound words. Results showed that young Chinese children attended to both the formal and functional constraints in reading and writing tasks. In the judging task, 4-year-olds were able to identify the type of orthographic elements - the stroke-patterns, but they could not place them in legitimate positions. The 6-years-olds were able to refer both to the position and the correct type of orthographic elements in differentiating pseudowords from nonwords. In the writing and reading tasks, four and five-year-olds were unable to utilize the semantic radicals to represent meaning, nor could they use the phonological components for pronunciation; six-year-olds could use the semantic radicals to represent meaning and only nine-year-olds could both use semantic radicals correctly and systematically referred to the phonological components for pronunciation. A significant age difference was found in all the experiments. The studies provide strong evidence that learning compound words in Chinese is not a simple matter of memorizing but involves the understanding of formal and functional constraints in the script. A possible application of these findings lies in the new direction offered for reading instruction where the non-generative, rote view of learning to read and write in Chinese can be safely abandoned.