AUTHOR=Jiang Meng , Pan Xueyao , Wang Xia , Luo Qi 

TITLE=Will the embedded semantic radicals be activated when recognizing Chinese phonograms?

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Human Neuroscience

VOLUME=Volume 19 - 2025

YEAR=2025

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/human-neuroscience/articles/10.3389/fnhum.2025.1550536

DOI=10.3389/fnhum.2025.1550536

ISSN=1662-5161

ABSTRACT=IntroductionA majority of Chinese characters are phonograms composed of phonetic and semantic radicals that serve different functions. While radical processing in character recognition has drawn significant interest, there is inconsistency regarding the semantic activation of embedded semantic radicals, and little is known about the duration of such sub-lexical semantic activation.MethodsUsing a priming character decision task and a between-subjects design, this study examined whether semantic radicals embedded in SP phonograms (semantic radicals on the left and phonetic radicals on the right) can be automatically activated and how long such activation persists. We manipulated semantic relatedness between embedded radicals and target characters, prime frequency, and stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs).ResultsFacilitatory effects were observed on targets preceded by low-frequency primes at an SOA of 500 ms. No significant priming effects were found at SOAs of 100 ms or 1000 ms, regardless of prime frequency.DiscussionThese findings suggest that sub-lexical semantic activation can occur and remain robust at 500 ms but may dissipate before 1000 ms. The study contributes valuable evidence for the automaticity and time course of embedded semantic radical processing in Chinese phonogram recognition, thereby enhancing our understanding of sub-lexical semantic processing in logographic writing systemse.