Evidence for cross-script abstract identities in learners of Japanese kana

Abstract

The presence of abstract letter identity representations in the Roman alphabet has been well documented. These representations are invariant to letter case (upper vs. lower) and visual appearance. For example, "a" and "A" are represented by the same abstract identity. Recent research has begun to consider whether the processing of non-Roman orthographies also involves abstract orthographic representations. In the present study, we sought evidence for abstract identities in Japanese kana, which consist of two scripts, hiragana and katakana. Abstract identities would be invariant to the script used as well as to the degree of visual similarity. We adapted the cross-case masked-priming letter match task used in previous research on Roman letters, by presenting cross-script kana pairs and testing adult beginning -to- intermediate Japanese second-language (L2) learners (first-language English readers). We found robust cross-script priming effects, which were equal in magnitude for visually similar (e.g., り/リ) and dissimilar (e.g., あ/ア) kana pairs. This pattern was found despite participants' imperfect explicit knowledge of the kana names, particularly for katakana. We also replicated prior findings from Roman abstract letter identities in the same participants. Ours is the first study reporting abstract kana identity priming (in adult L2 learners). Furthermore, these representations were acquired relatively early in our adult L2 learners.

The Effects of Handwriting Experience on Literacy Learning

“…In contrast, abstractionist views propose that at least some aspects of human knowledge, such as letter knowledge, involve abstract, amodal representations that cannot be reduced to sensorimotor memories (e.g., Leshinskaya & Caramazza, 2016; Mahon, 2015; Mahon & Hickok, 2016). Our findings favor the abstractionist view and add to various existing lines of evidence of symbolic letter identities from cognitive psychology (e.g., Schubert, Gawthrop, & Kinoshita, 2018; Wiley et al, 2016), neuropsychology, and neuroimaging (e.g., Petit et al, 2006; Rothlein & Rapp, 2014). Additionally, the finding that symbolic-letter-identity learning was strongest in the context of writing experience would seem to be an especially timely reminder that evidence of motor learning should not be automatically interpreted as favoring an embodiment position (but see Barsalou, 2008, for a review of a range of different positions on this question).…”

“…For example, the letter name ("ay"), visual formats ("A"/"a"), and the motor program for "A" all share a representation that is symbolic and lacks domainspecific content. The claim that symbolic letter identities play a key role in reading and spelling is supported by behavioral (Chen & Proctor, 2012;Lupyan et al, 2010;Rothlein & Rapp, 2017;Schubert, Gawthrop, & Kinoshita, 2018;Wiley et al, 2016), neuroimaging (Rothlein &…”

“…For example, the letter name (“ay”), visual formats (“A”/“a”), and the motor program for “A” all share a representation that is symbolic and lacks domain-specific content. The claim that symbolic letter identities play a key role in reading and spelling is supported by behavioral (Chen & Proctor, 2012; Lupyan et al, 2010; Rothlein & Rapp, 2017; Schubert, Gawthrop, & Kinoshita, 2018; Wiley et al, 2016), neuroimaging (Rothlein & Rapp, 2014), and neuropsychological (Caramazza & Hillis, 1990; Schubert & McCloskey, 2013) evidence. Symbolic letter identities have often been investigated in the Roman alphabet via analysis of tasks contrasting upper- and lowercase allographs on the basis of the logic that, under the symbolic-letter-identity hypothesis, upper- and lowercase letters share a common representation, despite visual dissimilarities (for examples in Hebrew, see Friedmann & Gvion, 2005; for examples in Arabic, see Carreiras et al, 2012; Wiley & Rapp, 2019; Wiley et al, 2016; and for examples in Japanese, see Kinoshita et al, 2019).…”

Allograph priming is based on abstract letter identities: Evidence from Japanese kana.

“…These characteristics of the kana system suggest that hiragana and katakana letters are allographs, just like the upper- and lowercase forms of the Roman alphabet. Consistent with this, Japanese readers have no difficulty with the instruction to decide whether hiragana and katakana forms (e.g., い and イ, both representing the mora /i/) are the “same letter” ignoring the difference in form, just as alphabetic readers can apply the instruction to the upper- and lowercase forms of the Roman alphabet (Schubert et al, 2017). In contrast, a kanji character with a single-mora pronunciation could never be considered “the same letter” as the kana letter for that mora.…”

“…For example, Carreiras, Perea, and Abu Mallouh (2012) found robust cross-allograph priming for Arabic, which did not depend on the visual similarity between the forms. Schubert, Gawthrop, and Kinoshita (2017) tested adult L2 learners of Japanese, and found robust cross-kana (hiragana vs. katakana) priming, equivalent in size for visually similar and dissimilar kana prime-target pairs. These results suggest that “abstract letter identities may be universal” (the title of the Carreiras et al, 2012 article) across writing systems that have multiple allographs for a single letter identity.…”