Abstract
Because of Chinese characters’ complicated orthographies and children’ immature cognitive level, Chinese orthographics’ acquisition seemed to be quite difficult. Dongba pictograph has similar characteristics of Chinese characters and pictures to some extent. It is suggested that Dongba pictograph may contribute to children's Chinese character orthographic learning. In this research, task dissociation paradigm was adopted to explore the simulative functions of Dongba pictograph and picture on Chinese character orthographic learning under implicit learning.
A total of 160 children (80 males and 80 females) were tested in this study, 80 children took part in Experiment 1 and another 80 children took part in Experiment 2. Three-factor mixed design was used:4(learning style:Chinese learning only, Dongba pictograph learning only, Chinese learning combined with Dongba pictograph, Chinese learning combined with pictures )×2(test style:instant test, delay test)×2(word class:verbs, nouns). The materials included 40 Chinese characters (20 verbs which included 10 ideograph words and 10 phonograms, 20 nouns which included 10 ideograph words and 10 phonograms), 40 Dongba pictographs and 40 pictures, while three stimuli shared the same meaning. Color judgement tasks were used in this research in the learning period. Using recognition task, Experiment 1 was to investigate the influence of learning style to explicit memory of Chinese orthographic learning. Results showed that Dongba pictograph can promote Chinese character learning. Using preference task, Experiment 2 was to investigate the influence of learning style to implicit memory of Chinese orthographic learning.
Results showed that Chinese learning combined with Dongba pictograph caused better results than Chinese learning combined with pictures and Chinese learning only in explicit memory. Chinese character learning only acquired the most implicit priming in implicit memory. The performance of nouns was better than that of verbs. Performance of instant tests was better than that of delay tests. These results may result from the characteristics of collateral learning and testing styles, and the similarity between Dongba pictograph and Chinese character, also children’s cognitive features influenced Chinese orthographic acquisition. The results also indicated that the combination of voluntary learning and collateral learning would help children’s Chinese learning.
The conclusions are derived from this study: (1) Dongba pictograph can be a kind of auxiliary learning tool to promote young children’s Chinese character orthographic learning. (2) The effects of Dongba on Chinese character orthographic learning may result from characteristics of collateral learning and testing styles, and the similarity between Dongba pictograph and Chinese character, as well as children’s cognitive characteristics.
Key words
Dongba pictograph, Chinese orthographic memorizing, implicit learning, explicit memory, implicit memory
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Research on Dongba Pictograph Influencing Children’s Chinese Orthographic Acquisition with Implicit Learning[J]. Journal of Psychological Science. 2013, 36(1): 145-149
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