The effects of the visual and phonological information of Japanese kanji words on the memory spans of native Japanese speakers

Abstract

This study attempted to provide evidence that the visual information of Japanese kanji words has a large effect on the memory spans of native Japanese speakers, while their phonological information has a small effect. Experiment 1 examined the word-length effects of kanji words, controlling orthographic length and manipulating phonological length. The results did not show a linear function of memory span and phonological length, and revealed that fast readers were not necessarily good memorizers. Experiment 2 examined the word-length effects, controlling phonological length and manipulating orthographic length. The results revealed a clear linear function of memory span and orthographic length. Experiment 3 compared the orthographic neighborhood size effects on memory span between kanji words with standard and with special readings. The results showed that the orthographic neighborhood size effects did not differ between the two kinds of kanji words. Together, these results indicate that the visual information of kanji words has a large effect on the memory spans of native Japanese speakers, while their phonological information has only a small effect. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)