• Visual letter similarity effec...

*Result*: Visual letter similarity effects in Korean word recognition: The role of distinctive strokes.

Title:
Visual letter similarity effects in Korean word recognition: The role of distinctive strokes.
Authors:
Bae S; Department of Psychology, Yeungnam University, Gyeongsan, South Korea., Lee CH; Department of Psychology, Sogang University, Seoul, South Korea., Pae HK; School of Education, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, USA.
Source:
Quarterly journal of experimental psychology (2006) [Q J Exp Psychol (Hove)] 2025 Jul; Vol. 78 (7), pp. 1369-1378. Date of Electronic Publication: 2024 Sep 19.
Publication Type:
Journal Article
Language:
English
Journal Info:
Publisher: Sage in association with Experimental Psychology Society Country of Publication: England NLM ID: 101259775 Publication Model: Print-Electronic Cited Medium: Internet ISSN: 1747-0226 (Electronic) Linking ISSN: 17470218 NLM ISO Abbreviation: Q J Exp Psychol (Hove) Subsets: MEDLINE
Imprint Name(s):
Publication: 2018- : London : Sage in association with Experimental Psychology Society
Original Publication: London : Informa Healthcare
MeSH Terms:
Pattern Recognition, Visual*/physiology , Recognition, Psychology*/physiology , Vocabulary* , Reading* , Semantics*, Humans ; Male ; Female ; Young Adult ; Reaction Time/physiology ; Photic Stimulation ; Adult ; Analysis of Variance ; Decision Making/physiology
Contributed Indexing:
Keywords: Hangul script; Korean word recognition; Visual similarity; distinctive strokes; lexical decision task; word-matching task
Entry Date(s):
Date Created: 20240816 Date Completed: 20250701 Latest Revision: 20250701
Update Code:
20260130
DOI:
10.1177/17470218241278600
PMID:
39148362
Database:
MEDLINE

*Further Information*

*While the impact of visual letter similarity on word recognition in the Latin script has been extensively documented using masked priming techniques, research into non-Latin scripts such as Hangul remains limited. Hangul letters are systematically formed by adding one or two strokes to the base form, creating a pool of visually similar letters in the inventory. This study investigated the role of added distinctive strokes in word recognition by employing two experimental tasks: a lexical decision task (Experiment 1) and a same-different word matching task (Experiment 2). The results of Experiment 1 revealed a visual similarity effect only for primes without distinctive strokes, indicating an asymmetry in the priming effects. Conversely, Experiment 2 showed that visually similar primes facilitated target word processing regardless of the presence of the distinctive stroke, indicating no asymmetric priming effect. These findings suggest initial uncertainty of letter identity during Korean word processing and the processing of distinctive strokes in differentiating visually similar words.*

*Declaration of conflicting interestsThe author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.*