Discusses two major questions in the study of reading Chinese characters from the viewpoint of experimental psychology: (1) Is there cerebral lateralization? (2) In progressing from the recognition of single characters to the comprehension of sentences, is phonetic recoding necessary? The answer to both is yes. (KM)

According to recent neurolinguistic theories and research, language and other analytic functions are located on the left side of the brain, while spatial and configurational abilities are located on the right side. However, there is some evidence that while learning a language requires the use of both hemispheres of the brain, the right hemisphere…

First-year students of Chinese at the United States Air Force Academy (n=60) were tested for reading speed and comprehension of Chinese passages presented either in characters or romanization. Students read faster and understood more in romanization than in characters. (LMO)

Twenty-two Cantonese-speaking Chinese students and 16 Spanish-speaking students were tested for short-term memory encoding strategies on word-recognition tests. Chinese speakers were found to encode Chinese ideographs phonologically, but both Chinese and Spanish learners of English were found to encode English words visually. (Author/CFM)

Three main issues relating to the question of silent speech in reading are considered: (1) How do Chinese speakers process Chinese ideographs in short-term memory? (2) How is Chinese students' learning of written English affected by the transition to an alphabetic language? (3) Are the strategies for encoding written words in short-term memory…