Most previous research has explored how words are processed in isolation. However, reading is a complex process where an interplay of various factors affects word identification. Moreover, previous research has mainly focused on alphabetical languages, so extension of the existent findings to non-alphabetical languages is crucial. The current dissertation uses natural reading paradigms to study eye-movements and neurophysiological correlates of the statistical properties of words that affect word recognition during natural reading in English and Chinese. Chapter 2 concerns the time-courses of word frequency and semantic similarity effects in the reading of English derived words. Previous research pointed to a paradox where behavioural experimental techniques showed earlier signatures of these properties than neuro-imaging techniques. By combining eye-tracking and EEG and applying analytical techniques that target the onset of these effects, this study aims at investigating this paradox. Results still show that neurophysiological responses are either largely absent or appear at the same time as shown in eye-movement data. Chapter 3 shows that the existence of spelling errors negatively impacts the recognition of correct spellings in Chinese. This is revealed by the “spelling entropy effect”, which measures the uncertainty about choosing between correct and alternative spelling variants. This is the first study that used co-registration of eye-tracking and EEG to explore the behavioral and neurophysiological signatures of this uncertainty. Chapter 4 studies how segmentation probabilities influence word segmentation and identification when reading Chinese. The results reveal that space becomes beneficial only when located at places where segmentation probability is considered high. This study is among the first to show beneficial effects of spacing at the sentence level and demonstrates how segmentation probabilities play a crucial role in Chinese word segmentation. Cumulatively, the results obtained point to the existence of numerous factors involved in word identification in both alphabetic and logographic languages, which should be explored using natural reading experimental paradigms, such as co-registration of EEG and eye-tracking, for obtaining a multifaceted view of word recognition processes. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

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Since corpus linguistics gained popularity as a methodology in the latter half of the 20th century, second language acquisition research has seen the emergence of work investigating formulaic language, such as idioms, lexical bundles, and collocations. A collocation is a string of words that co-occur more routinely than probability would predict, and can be considered as an existing entity beyond the component words (Manning & Schütze, 1999). Although formulaic language processing has been investigated by many researchers, uncertainty exists regarding whether such items are processed holistically as single units, or componentially in the form of the constituent words, with no definitive research having weighted the evidence in either direction.The purposes of the current study are threefold. The first purpose involves conducting research specifically designed to investigate whether L1 and L2 collocational processing is componential or holistic. This issue is important because existing research makes claims based on putative entailments, such as recognition latencies, as opposed to assessing behavior with manipulations that could only produce certain results if processing is holistic. The second purpose involves investigating collocational processing through a unique letter transposition condition that was specifically designed to isolate a holistic processing effect. The third purpose involves assessing data from an experiment designed to investigate collocation processing during orthographic word recognition. Fifty-four adjective-noun collocations and 18 novel pairs were embedded in sentences and presented to L1 and L2 English users in a self-paced reading experiment. The target items were presented in one of three conditions; no transposition (e.g., pretty girl), word transposition (e.g., prtety gril), and phrase transposition (e.g., prettg yirl). Results revealed that phrase transpositions engendered significantly longer reading times than the other conditions, indicating that these manipulations were processed as word-final and word-initial substitutions as opposed to a single phrase-internal transposition. Thus, the results indicated that the collocations were most likely processed componentially as two separate words. These findings have implications for collocation processing theory by suggesting that future models should consider collocations as being componentially processed at the orthographic, word recognition stage, and that the faster reaction times observed in previous studies should be considered in terms of an entrenchment continuum as opposed to evidence of holistic processing. / Teaching & Learning

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by Lau Chun Ip. / Bibliography: leaves 99-103 / Thesis (M.A.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1985

by Esther Mee Kwan Cheung. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1997. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 219-236). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / Abstracts in English and Chinese.