Experience with a Computer Word-Entry Method in Processing Chinese Characters by Fluent Typists

A 2003 study by Green and Bavelier showed that action video-game playing modified the visual selective attention of habitual players so the present hypothesis was whether processing of Chinese characters became more phonologically or orthographically oriented depending on whether participants were experienced typing with the phonological (zhuyin) or the orthographic (changjie) word-entry method. In Exp. 1, 38 changjie and 40 zhuyin users typed a short text on a computer using the word-entry method they had experienced. Every keystroke was recorded, and typing errors were categorized. In Exp. 2, 25 changjie and 25 zhuyin users had to circle all characters which contained a predesignated radical when they read a short passage. In Exp. 3, 25 changjie and 20 zhuyin users heard pairs of syllables and had to decide whether the two syllables in a pair shared the same onset consonant in one block of trials or the same rhyme in another block of trials. Analysis showed participants with extensive experience using phonological typing displayed more phonologically related typing errors, better sensitivity to the onset and rhyme of a syllable, but poorer sensitivity to the radical of a character. Participants with extensive experience using orthographic typing displayed opposite results. Although the general cognitive system might be similar in the two groups of participants, the specific configuration of the system can vary to meet the demand of a particular design of the artifactual environment.